Ramblings of an unfettered mind

Keep Marketing Advertisements Out of Your Mailbox

2012-01-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

For the people who don't want to entertain themselves with my stories, here's the crux of the matter: How to stop getting all the crap into your snail-mailboxes. But before you get all Uncle-Skeptical, I want to add that it works! Yes! It effing works. I was highly surprised when, after a week of registration, my mailbox was going very lean and mean!
Note: This is for US only, I'm not sure if this is a serious problem in India yet.

Quick Steps:

Go to DMA Choice page and create a login, click here.
DMA is the most comprehensive do not mail list that most large list owners, compilers and mailers will bump their lists against.
You have 4 sub-categories to opt-out from. I recommend opting-out of everything: Catalogs, Magazine Offers, Other Mail Offers and the most annoying of all, Credit Offers (cards, loans, etc.).
To opt out of Credit Offers the website redirects you to OptOutPreScreen (link).
This is a centralized service to process requests from consumers to
"Opt-In" or "Opt-Out" of the firms that offer credit or insurance. Fill out your information, and get rid of all the mail-crap that would have otherwise found its way to your garbage anyway.

Now, time for the long drawn story... (No matter what you say, I know all of you secretly love maal-masala, the spice! :D )

I was appalled seeing the wastage of paper (and a lot of other natural resource!) when I first came to this country. But nothing struck me harder than seeing pamphlets/offers/brochures after pamphlets finding its way into my snail-mailbox. I was like "who the heck even goes through all this crap". And indeed, EVERYBODY I know immediately throws it away into a dustbin conveniently placed just beside the mailboxes, without even as much of a second thought! The dustbin is eternally full, esp. in the evenings when people empty their mailboxes (putting away more than 79% of it) directly into that bin. I sincerely wish they consider this bin for recycling, for all you know since it is NOT labelled one it might end up in the garbage dump :(

Before I put an end to the misery, I progressed through a few stages and learned that there is a very easy way to put stop to this crap, and in the process also save precious paper, few bits at a time.

Phase 0. WTF!
Really, the first time I got keys to my mailbox it was already beaming with a lot of papers. Seriously, if you don't clear them every other day, you WILL get a notice from your postmaster saying to clear your box otherwise he won't deliver any mails! Because there is no place to stuff any more. (I'm *not* making this up, this has indeed happened to me! On more than one occasion). I was joyous when I felt so many people are writing to me, but then I was like, "Wait a minute, I just got here and none of my friends know my postal, soo..." ~~creep'ed out expression~~ My joy was short lived ~~sigh~~, but I diligently ripped open every single envelope, only to discard it. After a few weeks, I was like, what the 'eff is this? I didn't even subscribe to it and I'm not even interested in any of them, why do companies like to waste so much of paper?

Phase 1. Wow! Credit Card Offers!
Over time I got a tad smarter (really?). As a student I had no credit history and the only bank willing to give me a no-annual-fee credit card was the PNC Bank who had a branch in my University (No! It was not out of bank's altruism, it was only because I deposited my tuition monies in their bank that they felt secure that I won't run away without paying off the card). The limit was very low, but good enough to get started on building the credit. Only enough to buy month's worth of groceries and some misc expenses. So I used to be all excited whenever I got credit card offers in the mail. I would discard all other marketing stuff and rip open only the ones with credit card offers. Invariably, every one of them had some annual fees associated with it. Disheartened, but still hopeful, I kept doing that for a while.

Phase 2. Meh!
Soon I discovered that credit card companies aren't interested in you if you pay off your dues regularly. You are actually robbing them of the opportunity to charge you obscene interest rates on your balance and huge fines. I then went into a phase of total ignorance. 'Whatever' is the word I muttered under my breath whenever I saw all this crap in the mail. By this time _every_ mail, other than the ones I knew I need to open (which were no more than 1 in 10s of them) found its way to recycle can.

Phase 3. Aggrrhhh !@#$!
Then came the sate of total frustration when the envelopes weren't a clear indicator of what lies within. I would either open then right away, but increasingly they started finding their way into a stack of 'to be attended later' bin on my table. It was often weeks before I got to them while they kept piling up on my desk. Half way through these various phases, I had read somewhere that there exists an option to disable all these mails. Half skeptical, half hopeful and half praying I wished the system was "Default Opt-Out". Imagine opening a new email account only to find that 99% of emails what look legitimate are actually spam! And you have to individually unsubscribe out from each one of them
Every time I ripped open an envelope and tossed them into recycle can, my heart ached. I can't go out there and plant a tree every month, but I can 'effing help reduce their falling.

Phase 4. Get up and be a man!
Then one fine day I had it enough. United Airways (in relation to some frequent flyer miles program I had signed up for) kept sending me a letter every freakin' week, it bugged me the most. Discover Credit Card offer came second with the same frequency. Then there was Chase 'Open new account and get $100 credit' nonsense, Clear internet service. Followed by car insurance offers, loan offers, etc. I said I have to be a man and stand up to this. And the encouragement came to me in the form of a nice article in Reader's Digest I was skimming through just before my bedtime. Voila! I said to myself, "Let's try this now!" I got up, spent no more than 9 minutes and I crossed my fingers before going to bed that night. I will never forget that night, because in just about over a week I was GLAD that all the unnecessary mail I didn't want went down. It has been a solid year now since then and my mailbox is going very lean! Much leaner than most VS models! Now, 90% of mails I get are the ones that need my attention. A good jump from < 1% before!

I generally don't give out unsolicited advices (but heck, this is my blog, eerr... what I meant was) but I will still give out this once. Because wasting paper hurts me a lot (maybe second only to wasting food, water and time),
I urge you to...
0. Stop all the marketing, banking, etc. flyers by following steps on DMA website
1. Stop paper statements for all your bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills and use internet instead.

The only ones I have not been able to put a stop to are "ValPak" and some thick bundle of newspaper'ly blob that I have NEVER gone through to understand what it is. ValPak is less annoying because its frequency is very low, but the newspaper'y thing is ANNOYING, a bundle every week! I am thinking of confronting my postmaster one of the days and figure if there's a way out.

But all in all, this (do-not-distrubt like) registry indeed works like a charm.

I did my bit of going green, did you?
A quick recap...

Go to DMA Choice page and create your login
You have 4 sub-categories to opt-out from. Opt-out of everything:
Catalogs, Magazine Offers, Other Mail Offers and most annoying of all, Credit Offers.
The first three are simple click-and-be-done-with-it types.
To opt out of Credit Offers the website redirects you to OptOutPreScreen (link). Fill out your information and save paper!

I promise it won't take more than 9 mins of your precoious time!

Save Paper, Save Trees, Save Your Time... Go Green!

You know you are a geek when...

2011-12-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

This was sitting in my cache of posts-to-make for over 2 years! Thought of giving it a finishing touch and putting it out.

I generally take it as a compliment when someone calls me a geek/nerd (and I trust most of us would), unless it is said with an obvious hint of contempt. So if you take being called a geek in the right vein, then you might enjoy this post. If you don't, then I mean no offense. Also I don't imply to stereotype geeks, so take it easy guys-n-gals.

Most of this is from personal experience, some is from observation, a few passed down as second hand information and some might even be figments of my imagination. Don't hesitate to take this with a grain of salt if your diet allows for any more room for sodium, that is :)

Don't know if you are a (computer) geek? Here are some tell-tale signs that will help identify a tech-savvy computer geek inside of you...

The first thing you do after meeting a new person is Google him/her out!
(Note: Bing him/Bing her still doesn't sound right to me! Bing'ing is just too hilarious to even think of as a verb!)
From there, you then check out every link there is referring to this person, particularly (strictly in that order): personal webpage, posts in mailing lists, LinkedIn profile, blog, ~~Orkut~~, Google+, Facebook, and any other other (anti-)social networking websites you happen to be on. Of course, given the person must pique your interest to a certain extent.
This doubles up for any unknown tech jargon, new words or technology you come across ... almost anything new you don't know about, animate or inanimate.
Also, on your first date you are tempted to say "Tell me something that I don't already know from Google" ;-)
Looking at a resume, you can immediately tell if it was written in M$ Word, OpenOffice or LaTeX.
Corollary: You are intolerant to resumes (and any documents in general) that you DO NOT have access to in pure text (or at least in pdf) format.
You can type your search queries on Google.com faster than it can suggest likely matches based on your partial input.
When you see someone's Windoze desktop the first thing reaction is that you have an insuppressible desire to clean the desktop, delete MB's worth of temporary files, empty Recycle Bin, run a Windows Update and rid the computer off the WinRot. If it doesn't have an anti-virus, you raise your hands in the air and silently swear under your breath, "[S]he doesn't deserve to own a PC!".
When you go to your friends house, and find his/her wi-fi router open (not secured), you spend the rest of the day re-configuring the router and all his computers to use secure connections. Chances are you will render at least one of the computers without network access, but you would have convinced your friend (against his will!) that it is better this way than keeping the router unsecured. Though, for the love of roller-blading computers, you can't explain him why has it _not_ caused a problem till now (that is until you proclaimed, without any proof, it was a problem)!
You get irritable when someone spends more than a fraction of second to find the right key on the keyboard
You have a craving to buy the latest and most sophisticated laptop there is. But the only thing preventing you from doing so is either you already have pile-loads of them, or you don't have bandwidth to keep all of them up-to-date with latest patches. Or your budget doesn't allow you to get one (strictly in that order).
You can still dig into one of your closets and produce a 5-1/4 or a 3-inch archaic floppy disks.
At any given point in time, you can flick out GBs worth of storage space in flash/usb drives from your backpack or pockets.
The first thing you think of on your perfect outing, date or any such important occasion, is how soon you can go back to your computer and blog it all out! And chances are you have already composed most of the post in your head already! Including layout, photos you will include and their captions too!
You don't necessarily hate GUIs, but command-line is still your way of life, and you root for root access.
At any given time, you have a total of at least 15 tabs open in your browser (most of them still unread).
You have almost all of your important documents GPG'ed and backed somewhere. Not to mention, you have a backup in at least 2/more places: external HDD and DVD.
You are paranoid about always keeping your personal documents encrypted
Your public key is published on some well known key server
You can remember all the different UserId-Password combinations by heart to all the tens of sites you visit regularly. Heck, you even remember exact URLs. And you are on your way to memorizing the IP addresses too ;-)
Given an IP address, you cannot suppress a desire to do a nslookup on it, ping it and even traceroute it! You just can't look at an IP address and not know what domain it belongs to.
When you look at something new, you are brimming with thoughts of how does it work. If you don't find a convincible enough theory, the first thing you do is Google it out on the first chance.
You look at yourself in a mirror only when:
- you have to shave (doesn't apply to girls)
- comb your hair (strictly not more than once a day! And some even consider that as optional)
- something's gotten into your eyes and it won't go away by just swiping your bacteria-laden coffee/tea stained rough fingers through it multiple times
- trying new clothes, which you buy STRICTLY only if you if HAVE to (for ex. I took out a new pair of jeans when the one I wore for a year and a half started giving way. For which I generally don't care, but I was worried the stitches around crotch region would give way to the cool breeze, and Seattle's pretty cold).
As long as the important body parts are covered with a clean and fresh clothing, you don't give a damn about what you are wearing, specially to work. Hell! You don't even bother if you wear the same clothes the whole year. And given you rarely look at yourself anyway, functionally, in my opinion, this is a very efficient choice. Mental faculties are best spent solving a bug, instead! Or creating one :-P
But please wear fresh/washed clothes, don't want you giving a bad name to the rest of geekdom.
You know the technical difference between a password and a passphrase
You can understand, a majority of xkcd strips
You can key in your zip code at the gas station machine faster than it can accept it! And the delay it expects between each keystroke freaks the hell out of you!
You can see things only one way....
- If it is broken: Rip it open, of course you can fix it!
- If it ain't broken: Rip it open, how the hell does it work? You are sure you can make it work faster/better!
You feel elated (have achieved nirvana?) when you have one of your pages (blog or homepage) turn up as the TOP hit in Google search (of course other than narcissistic searches i.e. searches for your own unique name)!
- (try "gdb vi mode"). (-as of Fri 12/01/2011)
- (try "review State Of Fear-Michael Crichton"). (-Fri 05/13/2011)
Your search results may vary. Snapshots below:

You never delete an entry from your TODO list when done, you just comment them out with '//' or a '#':
```
    ...
    //  9. Reply pending emails - DONE
    10. Update the TODO list (with what?)
    #  11. Grocery list: Milk, veggies, cheese, bread - DONE
    ...
```
One has to be particularly careful because you can't send emails with lines commented out in place of deleting them!
You know all the switches to give for all the commands you frequently use. But you have been using them for so long that you often can't tell which one does what :)
You have the know-how of tools such that you can transcode any audio or video to make it work on any of your video-playing devices: ipod, phone, music player or TV.
You squirm restlessly in your theater seat when you see one of these in a movie:
- The lead actor/actress can hack into ANY damn computer by typing furiously onto the keyboard, without any regards to what operating system it is running! That too without even looking at the keyboard. Let me tell you, even the best of hackers can't do that!
  "Please be REASONABLE", you want to scream your lungs out!
- People can do almost anything to a photo/video with just one or two key strokes.
  Imagine...
  Agent: Freeze the frame, right there, notice the little girl's eye (standing at least one football field away)... That's our number plate reflecting in her teary eyes, zoom in and show it to papa...
  ~~~click click~~ The agent hits no more than 2 keystrokes, and viola! Magic happens!
  But what worries more than the fact that there is no way a handful of keystrokes can do that, but the fact that the original photo didn't even have that much fidelity in it to begin with!
A new email, even if only occasionally, still excites you
More than a handful of unread emails in your Inbox makes you squirm with discomfort
You have a strong opinion about whether an opening brace '{' should be placed on the same line as if/while or the line after. And you don't even want to start on why 'space' is such a superior choice for indention over 'tabs'.
You know what a regular expression is and use them more than regularly.
You know exactly what processes should be running and not running in the background. It annoys the hell out of you if you cannot find out what a particular process does, even if it is a useless process.
Recently I bought a bluetooth dongle for my old PC. After letting appropriate drivers to install, I noticed that it had installed at least 5 freakin' additional services (all auto-started on boot!) and at least 2-3 other supporting processes. All of them were consuming a part of my measly cpu. I freaked out and have never used that dongle again. It is lying in the catacombs of pile of junk somewhere now.
If your laptop/pc is sitting idle and you happen to gaze upon its HDD activity LED (and I BET you will every so often!) and you notice any flickering, you will be fuming with rage and shall unleash your full wrath on the offending process. Tell you, it won't be easy to find the one, but you will make it your day long project, week long, if it comes to that, to find and remove the process from your life, forever!
You have at least one OCD that you are consciously aware of. And, of course, you are NOT ashamed of it :-)
Last but not the least, one sure-shot way of knowing you are a geek (as pointed out by one geeky reader who commented on the post) is if you noticed numbering started with a "0" and not "1"! Don't worry, you are still a geek if you quickly hit a page-up just to check that :D

But, above all you know you are a (computer) geek if you could read through the end of the list and laugh out at some of them :-D
Feel free to share your idiosyncrasies...

Potpourri of things

2011-11-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

Frequency of posts have definitely dropped, but that is not for the lack of ideas/thoughts/drafts for the posts. Quite the opposite, I have more than enough to last a year if I were to regain my regular posting frequency.

I think what is affecting my posts is a deluding perception that life is regressing from a state of Ordered Chaos into a state of Meaningless Chaos (no proofs needed!). Which is making me question everything I do more often than I used to. My email responses (of which at one time I could boast of less than 24hrs turn around time!) have become slower and more spaced (in time). Activity on (anti)social networks has dropped to near-zero (but that is a good thing!).

Not to say I am not having exciting moments. Quite a few, actually. And I wish that this (and upcoming) post(s) will make you believe so (without regards to what the reality is :-P )

So I thought of posting something that is potpourri of various things, in no particular order, just to prove that the (un)creative juices are still oozing strong, often inundating me with enough of it to prevent any productive work from happening :)

Lack of posts is often perceived by my friends as a cause of turbulence in my life. So I hope this post will help me debunk their notions in that regards.

0. Microsoft Photo Book: Inspire

Inspire: Sporting my shot

While it isn't as great as getting your photo published in NatGeo, getting one in Microsoft's PhotoBook (along side many NatGeo-quality photos) is nothing short of exciting. Every year (since last 2 or 3 years) shutterbugs at Microsoft request employees to submit their best shots. They then run it through judging process and of the thousands that they swift through, they choose a few to be eventually published in to a nice hard-cover book, with a photo each on glossy paper. Another team of volunteers then toil hard to get it printed and make it available at the right cost.

All this work is volunteer driven, that is, people do it out of sheer passion in their spare time. One of the most exciting parts about this whole effort is the economics... Every copy of book that is sold, part of the purchase money ($35 of the $50 book's value) goes to charity, United Way. To top it off, Microsoft matches $-for-$ which doubles the charity to $70! You spend $50 buying the book and somewhere a charitable organization receives $70! Interesting! Personally I'm not too game for donating where I don't know when/how the money is spent, but the thought of doing something that aids charity is, at the least, heart warming.

So, "show me the photo", say you. Here's the one that got through:

Dreamy Eye

And the description reads (this was a nice touch they added compared to last year's book):
Dream Eyes
Kirkland, Washington | I was trying the typical macro of an eye and couldn't get enough light on the eye, so I tried moving a little farther away to allow enough light in. During post-processing after a few crops, I soon realized the result was not going to be anything exciting. Having seen many amazing black-and-white shits, I then wondered what the original photo would look like in pure black-and-white! One click and there it was, this dreamy-looking photo. I didn't quite anticipate this outcome when I was shooting; I guess the best shots happen unplanned.

Canon EOS 30D | 100mm | 1/200 | f/5 | ISO 250

While there is no doubt that I love this photo myself, I wasn't expecting this one to make it through. But, as they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the judges, err... beholder.
My two other submissions were:

Lady Bug's Descend

Space Needle By The Night from Kerry Park

I think the one quality that these two photos lacked was uniqueness. But that's just a guess.

But... If only this were an eye of some beautiful girl! Why? Well, if it were, then I could have easily gotten an opportunity to ask her out on a dinner (date) ;-) That was actually a humorous (but seemingly serious) comment from a colleague of mine at work.
Colleague: Did you ask her out for dinner?
Me: ~~~befuddled and scratching my head~~~ Sorry what?
I was almost certain I missed to catch a few words in the sentence. Judging by my looks he figured I was as lost as Alice in Wonderland!
Colleague: (wearing a teasing smile) Did you ask her out for a dinner, the girl who's eye you shot?
Me: (bright bulb lighting over my head! Smiling but with saddened feelings...)
Oh! That! No! Unfortunately that is a guy's eye!
(With sunken hearts, we both walked in silence for a few seconds, we were on our way to buy copies of book for ourselves and that did cheer me up, though).
BTW, if you do want to buy a copy, you can do so online.
Go to Microsoft Online Company store, create a new account and search for "Inspire". If you are wondering, then no, I don't get no money or commission if you buy one. More press here.

1. Rediscovering the joy of Jurassic Park
If I haven't said this already (though, I doubt it!), Jurassic Park still ranks top in my list of top-9 scifi movies. It has been, what, close to 2 decades now and the only scifi movie to beat Jurassic Park at the top spot is Matrix-I (art, direction, cast, concept, Fx, etc.).
So shortly after I read Micheal Crichton's State of Fear, about which I recently raved about in another post, I had an epiphany: "Boy! Jurassic Park, isn't that your favorite of favorite'st movies based on novel by the same author. (inner voice, damn right you are!) Don't you think you should read it, then!"
Bam! And off I trotted to my local library to borrow my copy.

The movie is very well made, but as it is with most movies-made-from-novels, what you ramble out in words is often not easy to portray on screen. Often words (aka imagination in this case) has no boundaries, no limitations, none whatsoever. Movies, as they involve physical/material elements, more often than not, are severely restricted in what they can do and show us. Even when you have the best of Hollywood's creative artists at your command. It fails me why I didn't read this book sooner. But better late than never.
I am still a few pages from the back cover of the novel and I'm enjoying every bit of it. So much so, that if I'm dropping dead from sleep and it it dawns onto me that I won't be able to read even one line on any given night, I still keep the book besides me when I hit bed :D
(Just so you know... I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested :-P ).

Well, this has become a LONG enough post and I'm barely the scratching surface. If I were to cover everything I set out to cover in this single post, it will become YAILP (Yet Another Insanely Long Post) that nobody will ever bother reading (though I know a few who still would, I thank you in advance!). As a side note, YAILP's happen when you don't post often enough. See the (un)creative juices I was alluding to now!

So I will just outline things I intend to post in the hopes that doing so will urge me to follow up on them sooner than later...

2. Kindle
After much thought and checking out various e-readers, I finally bought Kindle. Of a few things, I'm relying heavily on Amazon's proven great history with consumers.

3. Aquarium
Almost every friend I meet, talk to or converse with over emails (e-friends, if you will!) have asked me about my aquarium(s). Since I was all gung-ho about it when I started and posted almost no update since then, it gives an impression that the fire has ebbed. Quite contrary. I am still spending increasing amount of time nurturing (and enjoying) my 2 tanks. I owe you all a short update, at the very least. Watch this space for more soon.

4. Photos
I haven't been shooting as much as I would love to and used to, but that is not for the lack of interest. It is just that the opportunities to shoot have reduced significantly because of very few (almost no) hikes and treks in recent months. Blame work for this. Part of reason is also the lack of time to do even minimal post-processing and captioning. But I will share a few photos I clicked that I didn't share here.

5. New Lens!
I splurged and bought a new lens! Which one? That's a surprise for another post! Supposed to be gift from my bro, but he hasn't paid me yet! lol ;-) But it is the sentiment that counts, right! (Though my credit card company refuses :D) !

6. Movies
Again, very little on the front of movie entertainment and enrichment. But a few noteworthy ones, vaguely in the order of their awesomeness, I saw are:

Ip Man
Ip Man-2
Flashpoint
Revisiting the Harry Potter's

7. Ipod Nano: Hits and Misses
On my birthday my brother gifted me iPod Nano. And I love it. But it is a far cry from perfection (for my use-case) that I have come to expect from Apple and I want to share my thoughts. I still love my 3yr old Shuffle.

8. Jeans
A jeans a year or two! Keep guessing!

9. Cruise to Alaska
My family was visiting me for a few weeks and after lot of back and forth, never-ending debates, lot of arguments and absolutely no planning, we went on an outing that turned out to be one of the most amazing family outings we have had so far: Cruise to Alaska. Watch out for details.

10. Vibram Five Finger shoes (linky)
For their alien'y look, my mom was strongly opposed to the concept of me owning Fiver Finger Shoes, let alone wear them. Glorified socks, she told me! Don't dare you even think of wearing one to work was her stern ultimatum. But my perseverance and love won her over and now not only I own one but two beautiful pairs of Five Fingers, I even wear them to work daily! Yes D A I L Y! I hope to share my feedback on these lovely footwear. But, like me, if you hate to wait, here's a short one line verdict: If you are a bare-foot'ie just get one, don't think twice!

11. Teas: Green and Oolong
I have always been fascinated by teas, mostly because of its ancestral following and origins than the (un)scientific studies that say they are healthy. I have come to believe that modern scientific research should be taken with a grain (read: bagful) of salt, esp. where big bucks are involved (which, come to thing of it, is almost everything!). So I often take refuge in following ancient methods over what science says is best. I'll share my experiences, sure you are eager to hear them.

12. Obsession with Old Songs and Vividh Bharati
It is now completely official that I'm totally misplaced in time: my ways of life (by and large) and taste (notably in terms of music) is very very archaic. So my unyielding obsession towards old songs should be no surprise to any. Watch out for how I rediscovered my lost love and more craziness!

13. Meeting Old-Time Buddies
The joy of connecting with oldest of friends who remain so even in the wake of lack of proper contact and irregular communication, is something that words will always fail to explain, no matter how hard I try. But that doesn't mean one should not try!

14. Go-Green: Stop Getting Crap in your Snail-Mailbox
I can swear on my blog that I had a draft post on this when, about a year back, I spent some time researching on how to put an end to those useless annoying marketing bat-crap flyers (which I didn't ask for) that landed in my mailbox. And it has worked, wonderfully. Except one that I can't put an end to.
I promise to dig out the information and share with you all.

I will add posts as and when they occur to me, hope but I you got a nice preview of upcoming posts, now just wish that I stick to the schedule here.
See you back soon enough! But wait...

Ending Note...
I realized that the post would be incomplete without some dash of music... So I bring you a rare song from my collection. Chances are you haven't heard of this song. Or at least not as often. That's because it is part of an incomplete/unreleased film Picnic from the 60s. Where did I hear it, of course Vividh Bharati! Though I cannot wish for you enjoy it as much as I did, but least I hope is you enjoy this song once. I didn't realize Sadhana looked so gorgeous. Maybe it is the setting of the song that's making her seem prettier and the lyrics is definitely accentuating her beauty: Kitna Rangeen Hai Ye Chaand Sitaaron Ka Samaa.
And if you are wondering then the answer is yes, I too have a feeling this will become my new loopy-song for a few weeks to come ;-)
Turn down your volume, treble seems a bit off on this one.

As usual, the music is effectively simple and lyrics, deeply meaningful (if you care to dig into them).
Singers: Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi
Music : N. Dutta (Datta Naik)
Movie : Picnic (unreleased)

If you crave for the full version, head over to here.

Gingerbread: Am loving it!

2011-09-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

I never blogged about my darling Motorola Droid X when I got her about a year back. But rest assured, I don't repent even slightest bit for NOT going with iPhone (and am more than happy I didn't go with WP7, which I could have gotten for free). Don't get me wrong, I still ogle at the sexiness of iPhones, but Droid X has the advantage that you can also make calls with it :-P (blame it on the crappy AT&T network or grip-of-death, I don't care!). Even though it leaves a bit to be desired, Droid X is as close as any non-Apple product will ever get to the uber-attention-to-detail and minimalistic design philosophy that is trademark of the Apple products.

For a while I was keen on getting every update there is for my DroidX. But the enthusiasm died naturally. So much so that I didn't even realize that Gingerbread update has been pushed out by Verizon for Droid X's (yes, blame i on work)! How Lame, you say? I know, and I concur! I generally rely on the update notifications and I still don't know why I didn't get an alert indicating that one is available. Well, better late than never, I say.

So it wasn't until my co-worker pointed out that gingerbread has been pushed by Verizon, did I update my OS. Late to join the bandwagon, I got my Gingerbread update more than a full month later. But, now that I have it, I fell in love with my Droid X all over again :) And I say this in spite of the fact that the upgrade wasn't snappy smooth (and for a while I was cursing myself for upgrading). So much so, that I thought I should put up a quick post highlighting the changes I noticed.

I was so excited after the new update, that (much to my mum's frustration!) I was fiddling with the phone most of that weekend, drooling over it (all over again) :D

This is by no means a complete treatise on Gingerbread, but just a few noteworthy changes.
Note: I haven't spent time isolating which of these are stock Gingerbread features vs MotoBlur enhancements.

Here goes the list:

Text-Selection & Copy-Paste

Text selection is not orders of magnitude easier!

Launcher Dock

The dock (red rectangle) stays so on all home screens

Here you see an option of adding any app to the Dock

Overall Speed
Annoying GPS issue resolved

"Cannot get your current location"

App Groups and more
Quick add-to-home menu

Tap-n-hold on any app to get this rich set of options

Address Book navigation

Contact History

Full call history for a given contact

Speech-to-Text

Anna

Gingerbread translates my speech into text with too much ease!

Minor tweaks

Moving cursor, for example, is painfully impossible to get it at the right spot right on iPhone. On Droid you get a nice big-ass cursor, hard to miss the target with those big boys. Market looks much more organized. Managing apps: starting/stopping, (un)installing, moving between phone/SD card memory, checking resource utilization, etc. has gotten better. Wi-Fi now connects more reliably when I move across home and office. And as it has always had: all this PLUS you can still make calls!

Moving cursor is now easier too!

Thank you once again Google, for giving customers a choice they would love to use (like GMail & GTalk). Mind you, even if you hate Android, it has up'ed the bar for quality of smartphones: choice is always better for customers. If you are out in the market for a new smartphone, you now know what to ask for! :)

Note: No phone OS war entertained, but constructive criticism's welcome.

Fishtank Update

2011-08-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

Aquarium Update:
Every one of my friends (whether I interact with him/her on a very regular basis or irregular) have asked me over the past few months about the fishtank. And their intent was to genuinely know about it, not just general chit-chat. Most know about experiments in my life more through my blog than they speak to me (yes, I know that is sad, but not as much as nobody caring at all!). Lack of updates in posts here had got them concerned, I suspect.

So I thought I owe an update on my fishtanks to all you friends who regularly skim through here (irrespective of what draws you here: genuine curiosity, boredom, ample free time to kill or sheer friendship!). .
Thanks for asking, they are doing good! ~~~touchwood~~~

There are a few enhancements I was wanting to do over this summer on my tank (mainly: upgrading to a better dirt and rearranging the plants), but I couldn't spare enough time. The tank looks good, but I wanted to take it a notch higher. Guess it will have to wait for a while now ~~~sigh~~~
I up'ed this video a while ago, but never got around posting it here (what a lazy a$$)!

So here you go, my 30G (110 liters) fresh water planted aquarium. I have shot the video of my smaller (10G) tank too, but haven't gotten around uploading it yet. It had grown a beautiful carpet of Pearl Weed. Which I took down last week as it had a lot of Java Moss intertwined in it, which had started poaching on my pearl weed. So I cleaned most of the surface and replanted them. Waiting to see how that goes.

Freshwater Planted Aquarium:

Some tips I have come to believe will help budding aquarium enthusiasts.

Regular water change

API Leaf Zone

Advantage

Lighting

T5HO

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the video.

Designing Good Interfaces: Function Names, Arguments & Their Actions

2011-08-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share an interesting (and very oftenly overlooked) programming practice. It is a very bright idea, intuitive, almost, I would argue, to have function names describe their actions and/or intentions:

  create_stack(), destroy_stack(), walk_stack(), kill_process().

What these functions might do is almost self explanatory from their names.
This simple (often untold) rule has helped legions of programmers maintain their sanity (at least of whatever is left), because they know that when they call create_stack() it will create stack, NOT destroy it. And if it does, then there is something obviously wrong with the function. Easy-Beezee. Basic programming principle, correct?

So imagine yourself working at the famous LHC and you want to excite an electron! Luckily for you, you are a programmer! So the herculean task of exciting an electron is reduced to writing a few lines of code for you!
Now say, you are onto writing a subroutine to excite an electron, naturally you will be tempted call your's as some variation of: excite_electron().

Everything excited, has to eventually come down to a ground state, so you want a complimentary function to bring that electron back to the ground state. You can go with unexcite_electron(). Or you can pass in a TRUE/FALSE argument to the same excite_electron() function and let it decide whether to excite or undo the excitement (pull it to ground state, unexcite).
(Note: Yes, in most cases we programmers couldn't care less if unexcite is not a valid English word, as long as it unambiguously conveys the functionality).

No big deal. Trivial. Programming looks so easy, you say!
Well, then why the hell do so many programmers look eternally grim with unkempt premature white/gray hair? Here's one reason why...
I bet there are many ways to come up with good function name(s), excite/unexcite pair being one (even if they sound so unexciting!).
But here's particularly one sure-shot way to earn the wrath of your fellow-programmers who have to maintain your code and use your (dreaded!) APIs...

 void excite_electron (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)  

 {  

   if (undo_excite) {  

     decrement( electron->energy );  

   } else {  

     increment( electron->energy );  

   }  

 }

What! Don't see the problem yet! Wait till you have to invoke that interface to do something:

   // Excite an electron

   excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, FALSE );  

   

   // Do your fancy experiments  

   

   // Now bring it back to ground state

   excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, TRUE );

@#$! Yes, that was my reaction too! See the problem NOW!
Nothing wrong with the function in itself, but put into larger perspective and it looks dreadful. NEVER EVER have a function name with one verb/action (excite in this case) and a totally opposite action/verb in the arguments (unexcite). Not even for obfuscated code! In my opinion this is plain wrong, not obfuscated.

Just for the kicks... if you want to make it worse, you can go with:

 excite_electron_2 (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)  

 {  

   if (undo_excite != FALSE) {  

     decrement( electron->energy );  

   } else {  

     increment( electron->energy );  

   }  

 }

- OR -

 excite_electron_2 (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)  

 {  

   if (!undo_excite) {  

     increment( electron->energy );  

   } else {  

     decrement( electron->energy );  

   }  

 }

If you still haven't evoked the wrath of that seasoned programmer who has, say, assimilated the essence of zen into himself, you can take it a notch higher by declaring the prototype in a header file as:

 // Function prototype to excite an electron, that is bound to get you killed!  

 void excite_electron (void* , boolean);

And let the caller be totally surprised of what happens next! :)
Exact same function and exact same outcome, but you have just made it a little harder for reader to decode its workings. Make sure you are not around after you checkin this kind of sh!t into the code repository!

This is NOT out of my figment of imagination, this sh!t happens for real!

Moral:

0. Law of least astonishment: Please use consistent verbs for function names and arguments. This would be the correct function declaration:

     excite_electron( void* electron, boolean excite );

Now the following invocation tells me intuitively without any ambiguity that I am trying to excite an hydrogen electron even without looking at function prototype or its definition.

     excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, TRUE );

1. Avoid double negation:

     if (dont_remove != FALSE) { ... }   // not too readable, DON'T do it  

     if (dont_remove == TRUE)  { ... }   // much readable now!  

     if (dont_remove)          { ... }   // not only readable but also elegant!

2. Designing good usable interfaces is a non-trivial task! Programming is NOT just about churning out lines of code. It is way more than that! That is why some of us believe programming is not just a science, it is an art!

THEY Want...

2011-08-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

THEY want you to cry...
THEY want you to rejoice...
THEY want you to be crushed from the juggernaut cycle of joy-n-sorrow
THEY want you to be unhappy...
THEY want you to be jealous...
THEY want you to be restless, frightened, terrorized...
THEY want you to be trapped...
THEY want you to be sick (but of course NOT die, O! how thoughtful of them!)...
THEY want you to be discontent... distraught... to be dissatisfied...
THEY want you to be careless... and to be reckless...
THEY want you to rob, wage wars, stir unrest, kill...
THEY want you to drink to stupor, smoke weed and such...
THEY want you to buy, beg, borrow and steal...
THEY want you to fall...

THEY want you to want MORE...
THEY want you to be in constant search of peace...

But...
What they DON'T want is for you to attain the peace within yourself, never reach out to that ever illusive inner peace...
So that THEY can run their own agenda unhindered while you are too busy untangling your own mess!

Simply, because, if everybody finds his or her zen or connection to the core or victory over their minds-and-bodies the whole of socio-politico-economic machinery as we know of today will ~~bham~~~ come to an abrupt end!
Would that be so bad, after all? THEY don't want you to know that!

What? You are lost! So was I, until this epiphany dawned upon me ~~~beaming with newly earned uselessly dangerous knowledge~~~ Frankly, I'm still lost, but at least I now know where: a place from where I seem to see no escape.

THEY are the ones who own you and yet make you feel you are free,
THEY are the ones who siphon riches out while you toil away and pay your taxes, it is
THEY who reap the benefits of most of your material hard work,
THEY are the ones who control when you feel and what you feel,
THEY tell you what to read, write and hear...
THEY tell you what to do and how to do it, while making you believe you have a free (~~stifled chuckles~~, free???) free will,

THEY are the ones who own you, worse, they own your souls!
There is only THEY, not you or me.
All your base are belong to THEM.

This my friends, is nothing but a progression towards Dystopian world (1984?)! And...
This my friend, is an illusion of Democracy! A hallucination of highest degree, if you will! And...
THEY don't want you to know that!

Because, you, like a respectably good populace, are too busy earning your bread, paying your bills, rentals, loans on time, living (as much as possible!) a lawful life and spending the rest of your energies loving your loved ones, turning a blind eye to everything else. You are not like this because of your own will or (laughably your) destiny... you are what you are only because THEY want you to be like this! At least most of you are, there are always mavericks(???) amongst us, and THEY hate (read: eliminate!) them.
THEY choose who becomes what, how and when... Not you...

THIS my dear friend, is THEIR machinery and THEIR victory, not ours! At least for now and some more decades to come!

If you understand this (which I highly doubt ~~huh~~~ Not because you are not smart, but only because of its vagueness and lack of a head-or-a-tail) but if you do understand then you will know that this is a universal fact which knows no personal, political, geographical, social or economical boundaries. The only thing that varies is how sophisticated this machinery of THEIR's can get. But the machinery is omnipresent ~~sigh~~

But, the point I wanted to say was,
this started out as a random thought (#33), but I figured it won't be too bad to call it my very own Independence Day Special! (Independence? ~~~chuckles chuckles~~~ I know I know and I agree with you on this, a very laughable illusion, Independence, indeed!). I found it too apt to pass it otherwise.

Of course, my fellow Indian friends...

Happy Independence Day!

And here's a sincere hoping that you don't see what I do in the above lines!

P.S.: An annoyingly deliberate emphasis on THEY is to signify the power THEY possess over your lives. And so you must reflect it while you read it by putting extra emphasis whenever you encounter THEY. Out of respect, you ask? Lol! Hell NO!!!

Better Way To Live?

2011-08-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Most of you know that I'm a potpourri of random thoughts and epiphanies. What? You didn't! Well...Well...Well! _Now_ you know! :)

So here's one from my bag of random thoughts...
Random Thought #29 (contrary to the theme, the number 29 itself, btw, is not random):

I often yearn for the much awaited weekends, times of week when I can do whatever (ok, _almost_ whatever) I want to do. Of course, within the realms of other duties like weekly chores of cleaning, washing clothes, catching up with buddies, etc.

But the most importantly, I get some time for myself and do things that don't have a direct calculated invest-and-returns benefits, I can do things that just make be feel happy, no strings attached. From what I know, a lot of us mortals yearn for that. At least a lot of mortals that I know do. Which makes me wonder if there HAS to exist a better way to live than just yearn for those 2 coveted days of a 7-day week! There ought to be!

It seems so hand-to-mouth existence:
Solving only immediate or maybe near-future problems. The smarter amongst us anticipates future problems and acts proactively. But still, most of our time goes in either yearning for something too distant in the future (this is slightly different than dreaming). Or we are working just too hard to earn our daily breads and ensure enough provisional safety net for the rainy days.

I am not particularly unhappy, neither do I keep yearning for weekends every day of the week, but today's life style (if it can be called one! and I doubt it could!) in my opinion begs this question: Is there a better to live other than to (however occasionally) yearn for the weekends? I know there is one, but don't know anything beyond that. Or is it just in human nature to yearn!

What's your secret? Care to share?

Seed for thought: Just came to me while replying a friend's email who insisted on looking up to the weekend.

p.s.: Live every moment as it if it were your last, is total rat-crap and I don't buy it! Living in the present, is slightly palatable form, though. But that's a matter for totally different post(s), or is it!

Transformers-Disappoints me again

2011-07-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

While I'm really short of time (is this becoming a norm??? :'( ~~sniff sniff~~ ) and there are definitely more interesting posts to be made, I thought it might be worth it if this saves some of my readers their precious time (and their hard-earned monies).

As I already set the tone, it might be evident that the latest sequel of Transformers, the 3rd part, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon has me disappointed. Transformers-2: Revenge of the Fallen, I guess, is not even worth mentioning.

I can't pinpoint one single thing that disappointed me...
Was it the strikingly typical Bollywood-style masala where Rosie (who replaces Megan Fox, what? you already lost interest!) acts as typical spice or was it the action being too-fast-and-a-little-too-much to comprehend to the point of being completely chaotic or the length (2hrs and 40mins) or the utter absurdity of various scenes in the movie. Or was it the 3D format! Take your pick.

While objectifying Megan Fox in the first Transformers was more or less quite subtle, or at least not very clear from the beginning, it is quite evident from the very beginning that the primary role for Rosie is to distract the audience and give them a respite from almost incomprehensible (non-stop) action scenes. And for that reason, maybe, just, maybe, I kind of lost interest every time she popped up on the screen. People wanting to see the movie just for Megan might end up with mixed feelings.

As to me, I personally went to expose myself to some thought provoking concepts and cool FX but I was completely dissatisfied. Maybe I should have gone for something else. There was just too much going on in the screen to comprehend at one time. It was, in my view, special effects overused. There is, after all, abusing special effects to no creative end.

Moral: Skip it if you can, or if you MUST absolutely watch it (which I doubt!), save yourself some money (and more importantly, TIME) by watching it on a rented DVD while you cook or clean your house. Trust me, you won't repent.

Unsolicited tip: Well, this deserves a post in itself, but nonetheless... Kungfu Panda-II is every bit exciting as part-I was. My only complain; the movie is way too short, just 1hr and 30min. On second thoughts, that is not too short! I guess it was Einstein's theory of relativity at play, can't be totally sure. But the movie does end just as you think you want more. Anyways, don't miss that one. If you like light-hearted animated movies, you will enjoy this sequel, whether you are a Panda fan or not.

Another totally unrelated random stuff...
An amazing melody voiced by, none other than the maestro Rafi Sahab and Asha Bhosle (btw, did I ever tell you I love Asha's voice an order of magnitude times more over Lata's!), penned by Rajendra Krishna and aggrandized by Ravindra Jain's music has stuck in my head: Yeh Khamoshiyan Yeh Tanhaiyan, from Ye Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke.

A few days of endless listening and still can't seem to it get out of my head. Of course, loving it more with every single iteration :) Beautiful words and even more beautiful tune and voices! Of course, feel free to totally disregard the visuals and focus only on the audio.

Funny Haircut, Again!

2011-06-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Life has been a little too demanding lately. While this is not my normal way of having fun, now that I can't do anything about it, I said to myself: "Rather than being glum over it, why don't you have some fun with it!"

One fine Sunday when I thought of getting the much-delayed haircut, I didn't have this outcome in my mind. I don't know what did the lady hear, but after she heard me she armed herself with the electric trimmer and slapped on some numbered attachment to it. A normal(?) person would be alarmed, but I thought she would trim the side-burns with the trimmer (as has been my usual experience). Indeed she did, but soon she switched gears and, Nooo....(you can hear me screaming, right!) she went straight for the center of my head... and ~~zaapp~~ one swift movement and a good chunk of hair from the top of my head disappeared! Martyred, my beautiful hair lay on glaze titled floor, ready to be sucked into the vacuum!
What choice did I then have but to let hair on the rest of my head be reduced to same (lowly-)level! (Some of my friends suggested I should have contested and got a free haircut, while some said this should have been reflected in the tip. I did neither).

Surprised with the haircut?

Reaction from all my friends was unanimously from WTF to LMAO! Got a few raised eyebrows from coworkers too. The ones who didn't share the same reaction were just too polite to admit it. Some mild reactions were toned down to "Guys look smart in short hair". Everybody claimed that I must have fallen asleep during the haircut, but they know it is not true. While most of the world pictures us programmers as caffeine-hooked god(?)-made animate beings (most of them think of us as almost animate), none of us would fall asleep on a chair while someone wields life-threateningly sharp scissors around our heads!

But one thing was increasingly clear to me, this incident would make for a good post :-P Esp. when I haven't posted in a while.

As a result of this (pathetic) haircut, my parents almost disowned me. But I convinced my lovely Mom that I will grow them fast (I make her put Dabur Amla Hair Oil every other day. Anyone has better ideas on how to grow them faster!) She agreed to calm my daddy down :) And all's well now and everybody has agreed to take me back into family for the time being :-D You see, my father still adorns the 70's Vinod Khanna style long haircut. More than 4 decades and there is very little to no change in his hair style. So it is only natural for him to be very upset looking at his son's navy-styled trimmed haircut given that I'm not in Navy or even closely related.

Anyway, thought it has been a while I posted something, what better choice than make some people chuckle!
Btw, the last time this happened, it was by choice. But this time it was by hmm... force, may I say. You would have a much harder LMAO session with nice before-after pictures from last episode there: In Search Of Perfect Haircut!

As a side note: A lot of friends I talked to conceded that they have been victimized by a similar haircut fail. Unanimously everyone called out the fail at the chain of Supercuts (just like me)!

Best Day and Tulip Festival

2011-05-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Wet Pink Tulip Petal

That Saturday was one of the BEST'est days I have seen in Seattle in about a year. No kidding, I'm not exaggerating. It was only one of the 2-3 days that the Sun was out for a whole day with no rains, no clouds and temperature comfortably hovering a little over 60F (15C). Ok, I give it to you that I'm only talking about weekends, because a sunny weekday is only as useful as a 3-1/2 inch floppy inside a Lightscribe CD Drive (lame analogy, I know, I'm on a roll!).

Yellow Tulips Field with Cascasdes in the backdrop

It was a perfect day _NOT_ to ~~spend~~ waste at the office (like all the other weekends ~~sigh~~), so we had already decided to visit Skagit Tulip Festival. Looking back, a hike would have been orders of magnitude more exhilarating, but I was more than glad just to step out into the open air. With some last-minute changes in plan more people wanted to join and while one group was running late in spite of my insistence of being out-of-the door by 0800hrs. After waiting for long (restlessly) I said let one group go ahead while the second joins. So we started off at early around 0930 hours and luckily didn't hit any traffic (neither on I-5 nor on the internal roads). The second group (who started 20 minutes after us came more than an hour and a half later). A colleague of mine at office, I later learned, left at noon for the festival and was stuck in a 20+ long miles traffic jam! Indeed, while returning I counted the line on other side of the freeway, it had come to a crawl for 10 miles, after which I stopped paying attention on the other side (because I was driving :-P).

Long story short, I was as ecstatic for being out in the sun with clear skies as a kid is when you let him loose in a candy store with his favorite Disney Characters. I felt alive again! I am not a bot no more. I pray to thee, for you give life, Sun! I was breathing sun :D
The weather forecast looks abysmal for rest of the Spring, so I hope I make best of the days that are good (read: sunny).
Here are some shots form my Tulips Album for the year 2011.

Beautiful Pink Tulips

Tulips by a Pond

At the Heart of Every Tulip!

And now time for one nice Group Photo

Full Album here: Tulip Festival 2011!

Additional Info:

2011 seems the worst year on record with the fewest number of days above 55F, per one blogger on his/her post: Are Northwest Springs Getting Worse?

Epic MSN Ads Fail!

2011-04-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that lately my blog has been filled with too much seriousness. So I thought it might be a good idea to lighten things up a bit. But I wasn't exactly sure how, because I didn't want to (re)post xckd, geek & poke or dilbert. Facebook, lately, it seems is flooding you with such things already. I don't want to add to your spam. Just then an opportunity knocked in the most unusual way.

I was searching for something in my mail archives. A 5 year old email turned up in the results, which I didn't expect to show up for something I was looking for. It was an old email asking my professor at PICT for a letter of recommendation while I was applying for masters. Google is pretty good with searches (did I already mention that?) so out of curiosity I opened the email. Lo and behold! I discovered what could easily be one of the biggest ~~Google~~ MSN Ads fail! Here's the screen shot! Click to read the complete email thread and ads fail!

Epic ~~Google~~ MSN Ads Fail!

I was neither looking for s_x not headache after s_x! ~~Google~~ MSN Ads are supposed to be relevant to the content, or so I thought! But as you can see here, it seems way off the target! There is no correlation, whatsoever, between asking for a letter of recommendation and s_x doctors! Lol! I thought this was a perfect opportunity to lighten things up a bit!

Keep watching the space, I have a nice post cooked up for some more fun, esp. for geeks! :)
edit, 2011/12/02: You know you are a geek when...

On a completely unrelated note (lazy to make another post?), the weather here in Seattle today was simply outstanding. It must have been more than 6-8 months (I'm not kidding!) that Sun was out from morning through evening, without any trace of rains or clouds. I, for sure, haven't see such a beautiful day in Seattle in months. On freeways, I could see even the farthest of mountain ranges! I felt as ecstatic watching them as a kid feels after watching his favorite Disney character come to life :)

- - - - - - - - - edit, 2011/04/26 - - - - - - - - -

Thanks to my friend, Magesh, for hinting that the ad in question might actually be coming from sender's email client. I verified that and it indeed coming from sender's client, MSN, and NOT from Google Ads. Screenshot below shows URL when I mouse-over the link.
So I stand corrected, it is an Epic MSN Ads fail! :) Or... given that a few years ago hotmail would deliver EVERY junk mail to my inbox and most of legitimate emails to Junk folder, this was expected? :-P

Mouse-over reveals the link.

One quick note...

2011-04-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm racing against deadlines here, but the only way to satiate this overwhelming desire of expressing my gratitude amid increasing disorder (or frenzy, should I say) in life, was to make this quick 2-min post...

Hardly goes by a day when I haven't thanked the musicians/composers, lyricists and singers of Golden Era of Bollywood Music (roughly 1955 through 1975). I re-iterate, these have made my life a little more enjoyable, few minutes at a time!
I am disappointed that I was not born in their era (physically, that is, because many believe I mentally still am!), but then, I'm thankful that, at the least, I am born in an era when it is still possible to have access to some/most of their masterful work!

Once again, I bow to the enviably unprecedented talent these people possessed which produced nothing but magical concoction of words, music and emotions topping it off with a dash of simplicity.
By no means a complete list, but fairly representative, are:
the composers:
O.P. Nayyar, Madan Mohan, R.D. Burman, S.D. Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Ravindra Jain, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji.

the Poets (Lyricists):
Sahir Ludhianvi, Ravindra Jain, Kaifi Azmi, Shakeel Badayuni, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Shailendra.

the Singers:
Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar.

The song that, once again, impressed onto me the power of simplicity, beautiful words and heart warming music is the one from movie Shabnam, composed by Usha Khanna, penned by Javed Anwar and sung by none other than the maestro himself, Mohammed Rafi: the song Yeh Teri Sadgi Yeh Tera Bakpan.

p.s.: Don't focus on the video, it ain't that great. Just take in the song sans video.

Book Review: State of Fear, Michael Crichton

2011-03-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

It might have taken me a few renewals and a few return-hold-pickup cycles at my community library to get through this book, but I have finally managed to get through it. My records tell me this quest to read State of Fear started sometime back in November last year!

But don't let my sloth in finishing this book talk about its goodness. If anything look at my penchant to finish it, somehow! Anyhow!

It has been a very-very-very long time that I have read a novel cover-to-cover under mounting work and less-than-optimal personal time management. That is if I were to skip my re-read of Herman Hesse's Siddartha on my flight to-and-fro to India (which still happens to be my #0 favorite) . I did manage to read a few of Harry Potter's volumes though.

Without jogging my memory too hard, these are the two latest failed trysts with literary work:
0. The Glass Bead Game : (aka, Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse
1. Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse

I guess these books were a bit too heavy on spirituality/philosophy for my mind to take on as casual bedtime reading. One needs to set aside considerable chunk of time to enjoy them. So I thought of falling back on my regular thriller and sci-fi.

This is the first novel of Crichton's I have read and I was quite thrilled. Frankly, I picked up this work only because I liked Jurassic Park, which was adapted from his work by same title. To date that movie remains in my list of top 5 movies.

As to the novel itself... But let me put you at ease first.

Dont' worry, there are no spoilers, so read on...

The book is a wonderfully thought provoking techno-thriller, revolving around the (what I now believe to be highly distorted and misunderstood!) phenomenon of Global Warming. And if there is one thing that I adore a lot, it is a constructive-thought-provoking material. The journey from crowded concrete jungles of LA through the glaciers of Iceland to volcanoes of Antarctica to Arizonian deserts to the spine chilling jungles of Solomon Islands, for the lack of better work, the journey is just breathtaking.

Though mostly bordering around the realm of fiction, his work highlights quite a few interesting (lesser known and often ugly) facts that we don't get to hear. The Appendix-I, in particular, earned my greatest interest.

The author must have done quite a bit of research, as is evident from numerous footnotes, graphs cited from scientific papers & journals, two rich appendices and a whooping twenty page bibliography.

The broader point that the book tries to make is quite remarkable. 75% of the book (quite literally!) goes on and on about whether global warming is really something we need to worry about and whether we can stop or is it just yet another meticulously orchestrated corporate charade. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I kept going along only because it was entertaining and the suspense was quite enticing.
But I almost read the remaining 25% of the book (the last 200 pages) in almost 2-3 seating (yes, that did cost me quite a bit of my sleep, but I suppose it was totally worth it). The book takes on a very interesting and engaging turn when the some Professor Hoffman from USC enters the picture and the title of the book is quoted, verbatim, for the first time since the beginning: State of Fear. That, my dear friends, is when the real book starts. Until that point, there is no connection to the title of the book and story. This is the point where all the dots seem to connect, and things seem to light up.

I don't quite know how to put it, but you will need to have a certain kind of inclination, or quality, of lack thereof, if you will, to like this work. No, I don't mean tendencies towards conspiracy theories, but my vocabulary just isn't rich enough yet to describe that quality. Without divulging too much of the plot, the fans of Nineteen-Eighty-Four (by George Orwell) should definitely devour this work of Crichton's.

The book has played right into my pessimistic optimism. But besides that main theme, the book now also has me yearning for the composure, knowledge and the right balance of arrogance-and-humility that Kenner carries (and, not to forget, a girlfriend like Sarah too :-P). (Yes, I recently have had an epiphany about the importance of the right amount of arrogance to earn respect in this effing world. More on that some other day).

Moral, though slightly indirect, that I took away is, man has never been able to and will never be able to fathom the way Mother Nature works to the fullest. And so she is best left alone, with as much of little interference from effing pesky humans as is possible. You can admire her, you can nourish her, you can bask in her glory, and even cry over her apathy towards you, you can even caress her, but you can NEVER freakin' try to change her so as to suit your needs. Lest you face unforeseen and unimaginable repercussions and pay princely prices for your interference. A price not measured in terms of money, beware, which is but just a man-made necessary evil, but price in terms of life itself.

And there a quite a few documented cases (really large scale cases) presented in appendix to support that observation. Worth a read, even if you skip the book and just read them. Of course, they will be a bit out of context, but will still drive the point home. Also, it has bolstered my very strongly held belief: Never trust any corporation!

Anyway, the bottom line is (because that is what increasingly everybody cares about these days ~~sigh~~) this techno-thriller will not only whet your hunger for suspense, action and thrill, but also provide a little food for your post-dinner thoughts.

I should now be onto another book that I have been putting off for almost a decade now (yes, decade, that was not a typo!) Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (and its revised version Brave New World Revisited). Already put a hold at library, can't wait to get my hands on them, am looking forward to enjoying these books.

More suggestions for a good read are most welcome.

P.S.: If you want to enjoy the novel as much as I did, then don't read any revealing reviews, esp. Wikipedia. Read'em after you are done with the novel.

Is Good Overrated?

2011-03-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

Why is it that good people (and nation) are always hurt and under constant wrath from mother nature, while the nations of terrorists enjoy almost no natural calamities. As if that were not enough, the terrorist-harboring nations are geographically well endowed by mother nature herself with a terrain that makes it difficult to stop anti-social activities from taking place.

I don't expressly wish evil on anyone (God be my witness here), but this is something I ponder on a every too often. Won't the world be a little better place to live (and die) in if these calamities were to be geographically shifted a bit? Or is there a supreme power sitting somewhere architecting hideously evil plans to unleash utter chaos? I don't know; but increasingly I am gravitating into believing that! Or is it that "Good" is just overrated and misinterpreted? Just too many (useless?) questions ~~sigh~~ Mother Nature, I truly fail to understand your cryptic ways.

Over the years, watching white waters gush out from waterfalls and dam openings have given me good enough of an idea the unforgiving power water wields. But watching the waters from the ocean effortlessly wash away everything in its path for kilometers as if the structures were made of mere paper, is indeed a very humbling experience.

But...
Japan is called the 'Land Of The Rising Sun' for a good reason, I think; a nation that rose to excellence from ashes of atomic bombings speaks for by itself. It will rise from this destruction too. For, I believe, the country has the right kind of very strong fundamentals, at the very least better than the most (Western!) nations. One of the few nations I have almost unconditional respect for (apparently, despite some of their perceived social deficiencies, of which, frankly, I have no firsthand knowledge).

My condolences to Japanese and sincere wishes to the affected ones.
I pray for the strength for people who have lost their loved ones.

P.S. I find it enraging and utterly disturbing at the same time to see that while Nippons are facing devastating circumstances, hordes of people too worried about who will win the next cricket world cup (which, just so you know, has already been rigged and fixed!). Well, nothing that you can do about it by not watching cricket, but then doesn't it also apply to cribbing about performances of highly dysfunctional and irritating and overrated and over-pampered and over-paid and under-performing Indian cricket team? And yes, I have all the friggin' right to say so because it is my and other tax-payers' hard earned money that is being wasted on such infidels, which clearly could have been put to better use! BTW, same was the sad state of affairs when destruction struck home in the form of Kargil War in 1999. So why am I surprised and why should I expect any different this time, esp. when it is not even affecting our nation in any way? Not that I claim to be better than such massed, but this is truly disturbing and disgusting :(

Links:
[0] Photos: a glimpse of devastation in Japan
[1] Video: Tsunami washing out the landscape
[2] Kargil War

----- edit Tue 15-Mar-2011 -----

As much as I am impressed with Japanese discipline (and this might seem as an out-of-the-context update, but wait while you tread along) and have heard many a stories about high moral standards most Japanese live up to (from bizarre to almost legend-like), this is the first time I am hearing a very tangible story in a blog: There is no loot whatsoever during this disastrous natural calamity. And to top it off, contrary to Western Culture, businessmen have started offering their services for a discounts! I had read in Sony's co-founder, Akio Morita's, book Made In Japan, (a strongly recommended read) that the difference in salary between the top-most level executive and lowest workhorse is not as marked as in Western nations and in troubled times execs take pay cuts before they have to fire even a single employee for financial reasons. But people offering services for discount, man that impresses me like nothing else! Example of true patriotism and pride-for-nation by action, not mere words!
Another touching story: Apple's Role in Japan. I'm sure this has very-very little to do with Cupertino's Apple itself (for the fear of taking away credit for their good deed) and all to do with the high-level Apple execs in Japan (who, I suspect) are pushing for this kind of unusual support. This is purely a speculation, but a well founded one, I bet you would agree. They might even be shelling out $$$s from their own pockets (for I strongly believe that the eternally-hungry-for-more West would NEVER want to support, the Orientals, for free!), we might never know the truth! For Japanese would never tell us! True to their moral code!
I bow to thee ~~~bowing so low in utmost respect that my back almost hurts~~~
Upholding the true 'Bushido' spirit, as I learned at my Karate dojo (and continually reinforced in practice at home in the form of "being honest" and remaining "humane", even when nobody is watching over!) Of course there is flip side to every coin, but this is outright impressive.
In a nutshell, I guess this stems from the fact that Orientals' are more community-centric while the West teaches people to be more individually-centered.

Unmatched Parenthesis!

2011-02-12T01:10:00.000-08:00

Until today morning I believed I was the only one whose stomach would give a lurch when I saw unmatched parenthesis. Now I know I'm not alone. Today I read a comic strip that prompted me to express my concerns about unmatched parenthesis in colloquial communication (emails, chats) we have...

If you are a hardcore programmer (probably C / lisp), or if you have ever written a lexical analyzer... you must have faced this dilemma...
If you wanted to put a smiley at the end of your sentence that is inside a pair of parenthesis, do you leave the open parenthesis unclosed? Or do you close it? If so, then how?

I'm not making this up for the sake of a post, this is a very practical dilemma that I face very often...

Problem:
(This is a sample statement with a smiley at the end :)?
Now what do you substitute '?' with? Nothing? Or a ')' or a ']' ?

Solution 0: Textbook solution: Just don't freakin' do it!
Like most of the textbook solutions, the simplest of answers is to avoid the problem altogether! Just don't do it. Never end your sentences inside a parenthesis with smilies!

Sample Solution:
(There is no need to put a smiley at the end of a sentence inside parenthesis)

Solution 1: Leave the opening parenthesis unmatched!
But we all know how different the real world is from the ideal ones in the textbook. So the fact is you often want to end sentences in parenthesis with a smiley. This particular solution banks on extremely short attention span of humans and hopes that nobody will ever notice a missing parenthesis. They won't even realize that you opened a parenthesis. And that makes perfect sense, in a world where billions of dollars and hundreds of people vanish without a trace, who on earth would care for one measly missing parenthesis. Ain't it!

Sample Solution:
(There is no need to close the parenthesis when you end statement with :)

Solution 2: Always semantically correct, every parenthesis should match.
If a programmer happens to read it, your unmatched parenthesis is going to bother him through rest of his day. If you don't want to unnerve your programmer friend, I strongly urge you to always match all your parenthesis!

Sample Solution:
(If your programmer friend is going to read it, you better match every single open parenthesis, no matter how ugly the end result looks to you :))

Solution 3: Semantically correct and indented!
If the reader is an expert C programmer who has wasted inhuman hours of his precious life debugging and maintaining someone's unforgiving poorly indented code, you DON'T want to piss him off with lousy indentation (don't even think about not closing an open parenthesis, ever! This particular bread of programmers loathe with their utmost intensity the code that doesn't compile), lest you will be the target of his unwelcome wrath that he has been carefully suppressing through years of frustration with sloppy code he has had to read for the life of his programming career!

Sample Solution:
(
If your programmer friend is paranoid about indenting, then this is your best way out :)
)

Bonus Solution: MBA's Lame Solution!
Add a square bracket ']'!
Lame! Yes, that is what MBA's of the world do! Impossible solution, often to problems that don't even exist! Not to mention that solution are wrong in every possible way, no matter how you interpret the problem!

Sample Solution:
(If you are an MBA, you want to complete the statement like this :)']'

Note: Never ever let your programmer friend see you close a bracket that does not match what you opened with! Do that and you will loose him forever! Not to forget the look of contempt on his face every time he sees your name.

Also, don't get me started on quotes. As an ardent fan of shell scripts, I have very strong and often fussy views about it.

Raah Bani Khud Manzil

2011-01-21T17:57:00.000-08:00

Another Bollywood Gem: Raah Bani Khud Manzil.

Every once in a while a song will get stuck in my head and I can't stop listening to it in an infinite loop (literally!). Often for days!
But you guys would probably be bored to death if I posted every one of them :) Well...
I have heard this song several times before on Vividh Bharati, but could never catch its precise words. For some reason, this doesn't play very often. Today when I heard it again, I resolved I won't rest until I get this song! Lo-and-Behold! Jackpot! Less than one minute of work, after I caught on to a few key words I found it on Youtube (thanks Larry And Sergey ~~hugs-n-kisses~~ for building the infrastructure so that I could Google it out!)!
Before posting it, I had already listened to it a few tens-of-times in loop :)

As beautiful as the words are, "Raah Bani Khud Manzil, Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum", the voice and music (both by Hemant Kumar) make this a gem of a song. I still can't pinpoint what is it that I love so much in this song, apart from the beautiful words that is. I suspect it is the Raga that has struck a cord within me, unfortunately can't be sure for I'm a total music-illiterate :(

It is lame to translate and even more lame trying to convey the meaning of the song in English, but zat is not stopping me, izit! (Gusteau from Ratatouille):
The essence of lyrics is : the path itself has become my goal my destiny, making all the difficulties irrelevant and non-issues, just because you chose to come with me!
Lame, I know! But in the right language (Hindi) it is concoction of some powerful lyrics and beautiful tune you would want to drink again and again and again (and one more time!).

Song-Raah Bani Khud Manzil
Movie : Kohraa
Year : 1964
Singer : Hemant Kumar
Lyrics : Kaifi Azmi
Music Director: Hemant Kumar (until I dug details about this song, I didn't know Hemant Kumar has produced work in the capacity of a Music Director).
Lyrics:
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum

Dekho Fool Ban Ke Saaree Dharatee Khil Padee - (2)
Guzare Aarajoo Ke Raaston Se Jis Ghadee, Jism Churaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Zaranaa Kah Rahaa Hain, Mere Dil Kee Daastaan - (2)
Meree Pyaas Lekar Chhaa Rahee Hain Mastiyaan, Jeen Mein Nahaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Panchhee Ud Gaye Sab Gaa Ke Nagmaa Pyaar Kaa - (2)
Lekin Dil Ne Ayesaa Jaal Fenkaa Pyaar Kaa, Udane Naa Paaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil
Peechhe Rah Gayee Mushkil, Saath Jo Aaye Tum
Raah Banee Khud Manzil

Love or Lust, Simple or Flashy, Subtle or Pompous...

2010-11-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

Busy work schedules precluded clear thinking on pretty much everything other than the most basic needs of food and sleep. From the length of the post, you can pretty much understand why it took me so long to post it.
But before we start, the classic disclaimer: Extreme criticism for current-age Bolly-noise, err... Bollywood Music follows, so if you would take offense at that, then don't bother reading any further.You have been warned!

One of the major turn offs of current era Bollywood songs is that they are too corporeal, too much focus on glamor, s_x & vulgarity. And are always lewd in nature. If I were allowed to go on with the list (btw, for the fear of sounding slightly arrogant, who the heck is going to stop me!), then other problems include showoff, over(x bazillion times) acting, under(x 100 bazillion times) acting, close-to-nothing clothing, flashy (read: blinding) movie sets, apparently formless random (yet sometimes skillful) body movements (allegedly called dance), earth shattering noise (somebody told me it is called the music!), and last but not the least, utter nonsensical and meaningless amalgamation of words (again, the misinformed in me was told it is the lyrics of songs). Well, at least this stands true for 97.251%* of the crap they churn out these days.
(*under standard test conditions approved by SDA, Some-Dumbass Association, sample data collected from 1930s through forever).

If I didn't know any better, most songs are composed this way, at least this is my firm stand: take all the words you want to be in the song, arrange them randomly, straighten them out to conform to some semantic and grammatical rules of the language (in fact, many choose to totally ignore this step, and earn lots of 'Vhoas' as praises in return!), and then shove them up as songs! If you are slightly more demented...err.. I mean talented, choose the initial word set from many different languages into the mix instead of using just one language. And, this, allegedly is also the same formula for music, except words are replaced with "utensils of different sizes and metals".

Of course, I mean no offense to my buddies who enjoy them (I will still love them for who they are!), admittedly I too indulge in noise myself, but only rarely (and often forcibly). And, No No I'm not partial, I am totally objectively against such blasphemy of what once was otherwise a perfectly fine musical art.

Ok, enough trash-talk, now go back in time say half a decade from now, and what you discover is you didn't need all the above crap to get across the message of affection through musicals.
(I will refrain from using the word love in this context, because, today, it is *the* most abused, misused and misunderstood of words. Not to say unreasonably overloaded & overused!)

Song under consideration is this...

Tujhe Kya Sunaoo Mein Dilruba, (linky).

Movie : Aakhri Dao, 1958
Music : Madan Mohan
Lyrics : Majhrooh Sultanpuri
Singer : Mohammed Rafi

If the Youtube link ever gets taken down, don't worry, get it as an MPEG-4 video from here!

I strongly encourage you listen to the (not just hear the) song before reading rest of the nonsense err... post, I meant.
Just so that you can connect (now, wait, who the hell wants to do that!) to what I'm trying to blabber...

Let's start with easiest of the things first: Expressions!

0. Expressions: Simply priceless.

Nutan (the lead actress) without saying a single word is conveying so many messages back to her sweetheart. You want to look at her again and again and yet again for such beautiful expressions, even though she's not showing any valley-deep cleavages, mountainous endowments, surgically sculpted face, curvy figure not even digitally perfected makeups, or for that matter, not an inch of skin, other than her face and hands of course.
Often not sure if she should repent the fact she forced him to sing, or agree with his words, or just shrug in denial and or shyly accept the proposal.

So innocent, delicate and yet lovely and provoking in its own right.

Shekhar (the lead actor) on other hand is reciprocating all that with utterly confused looks wondering whether she is liking the words coming out of his mouth and at the same time totally oblivious to the presence of other friends of hers around them. Classic! No flashy sets, or flashy (read: fleshy?) clothes, and no lecherous gestures. Yet message is clear: He madly wants Nutan to be his soul mate. In fact, you could turn of the damn volume and still make out the essence of the whole affair.
Show me _one_ current-era song that can achieve this message with volume turned off!

In my view, this should easily be one of the few most precious gems of what is dubbed as the Bollywood's era of Golden Music.

The day I rediscovered this song (about 3 months back), I listened to it at least 20 times in continuous loop keeping aside everything I was doing. Yes, that is close to two hours without breaking a sweat! And I still couldn't get enough of it. The only reason I had to take a break was the fact that my phone went off shaking me out of my trance back into the reality. Since then it has clocked at least a thousand play counts. Such is the chord this song has struck in me, I almost go in trance when I listen to this song.

When you get past that the visuals, you get stuck with the music.
1. Music: Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan's masterful artistry with the tunes... oh God... So soft, non-pompous and in-tune with rest of everything. Unlike current age music that more often than not gives you a severe headache if you hear it more than twice in a row, best described as a well-organized (that's about the praise it can earn from me!) fall of a bazillion metal utensils of varying sizes! Well, at least, most are, if not all.

I doubt if this piece of artistic music used more than a handful variety of musical instruments, by far only a small fraction of the instruments used today and none of the today's musical electronic gadgetry for pre-post-and-on-the-fly processing.
Again simplicity at its best. I find this to be one of the best musical creations of Madan Mohan.
Yet again, my faith in my own long standing belief is reinstated: "Simple things are always the Best'est". That doesn't mean simple in terms of effort, trust me, making things simple takes at least a hundred times more effort and not to mention an unfathomable streak of genius to achieve it!

When you have enjoyed the visuals and music, you come to the lyrics, ~~~bowing so low in respect, that my back's cracking~~~

2. Lyrics: Majhrooh Sultanpuri

So pure, without slightest hint of lust, or use of off-color language and yet the insatiable desire of togetherness is conveyed so effortlessly.

Not even explicit mention of love and it's associated madness (illness, to be more precise!). And still you can feel how deeply the lover is in love with his lover (well that is too many loves in one statement, but you get the point, don't you!). His mental state is so beautifully conveyed in poetic form. There is only one of the handful few who could have penned this simple yet magical craft of words: Majhrooh Sultanpuri. (And you would have NEVER heard of him in your life, and never will, unless you listen to the only true radio station: Vividh Bharati). I tried my best, really hard actually, but not even my best was good enough to describe the lyrics.
You ought to listen to it for yourself to let its magic work on you.

Last but not the least, comes the final stroke of master himself, The Singer!
3. Singer: Mohammed Rafi

Just as it on to the shoulders of a master polisher to bring out the real ferocity in strength and delicacy of artistry in the Katana (Samurai Sword), so is the onus of bringing out the best of a song on to the shoulders of the singer. It is almost as if a singer has the power to make or break the whole song. His masterful and final finishing touch is what eventually reveals the real beauty of everything that music composers and lyricists have been working hard to conjure up (conjuring might be the right verb, because I see no other way of creating such things!).

The words when flowing out of Rafi Sahab himself mingle with not only great music but also effective cinematic direction of the situation, to create something which is nothing short of but a goblet full of Ambrosia, an ambrosia, you suspect, God Himself must have orchestrated and personally blessed!

This song impresses upon me, yet once again, Lucky Are Those Who Have Found Their True Loves. Lyrical, cinematic and musical representation of what such a lucky person would feel when he finds that one thing which all of us so desire to attain one day, only deepens my desire to reach that Nirvana-like state.

But that is not all, what is not so obvious behind all this is the fact, which I now totally believe to be true, (fact, true, believe... in the same sentence, man you are nuts!). ~~~aaargghh~~~
But what is not so obvious behind all this is the fact, which I now totally believe to be true is, that each one of the artists (the singer, music director, lyricist, cine-director) who made this possible must have found their true loves. And not only in their respective arts, but potentially in human-forms too, a far more difficult feat to achieve. For, it would otherwise have been simply impossible to achieve such a feat of connecting so deeply with the audience. Even if that audience was just the singular nuts-crazy author of this post!

Now you see, why it requires more than a hundred iterations to enjoy this song! When I listen to this song, I can choose to enjoy it as a whole package, or just the song without the video, or focus just on music, or just the lyrics, or even just the vocals, and last but not the least, the subtle yet not totally amiss, the [in]direct philosophical implications! I can enjoy this song in so many ways, dare I say, it is a Swiss Army Knife of the Musicals! Wish I knew a little about Indian Classical Music to dissect this song more scientifically (artistically, to be technically correct).

I had so much to share when I contemplated the post in my head the first time my half-century loop count on this song was over, but now that I actually want to pen it down I'm falling short of appropriate words and praises.
If you have listened to the song, then endured my blabbering all the way this far, you deserve to be treated once again with this song, what say, because I bet it is way too far up, and you don't want to gloss over all that again :)
Listen to the song, and discover the joy and magic from the era of Golden Music: Tujhe Kya Sunaoo Mein Dilruba, (linky).

Movie : Aakhri Dao, 1958
Music : Madan Mohan
Lyrics : Majhrooh Sultanpuri
Singer : Mohammed Rafi

If the Youtube link ever gets taken down, don't worry, get it as an MPEG-4 video from here!

Some useless facts about this post:

This song has easily clocked a thousand+ play counts, and still counting
I was listening to the song continuously for the few hours it took me to compose this post, which was not done in one single sitting. First words of the post were (digitally) inked in early Oct.
I'm so glad one of my most favorite songs is sung by my only favorite singer: Rafi
I had to use a thesaurus and a dictionary to dig through and find the most appropriate adjectives. If you feel I could have done a better job at some (or all?) places, feel free to email me or leave me a comment.
Something I often say, I'm serious about the fun I have! And this is but one example of it.

P.S. For all of you scratching your heads in vain, the answer is NO! Nada! You know that I know what you are thinking, so the answer is negatory! So stop scratching your heads and get back to enjoying this masterful composition with no strings attached :)

Human Race Sucks

2010-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

And will keep doing so through eons...
If you have been following my blog closely for while, hmm... well no, actually let me be more precise, if you have been following my _thoughts_ closely for while, then you might know HOW much I detest the highly mis-considered pinnacle of all races, The Human Race...

Nothing I say can be summarized better than what Jonas Salk beautifully put, which regurgitated my latent thoughts about this most celebrated of races in history:

If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear!
If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before!

-Jonas Salk.

And the meaning of these two lines go way much beyond mere ecology and pure biology, that is if you are willing to step back and think about it for a while. If there were just one singular race of any living organism that I look down upon the MOST with my utmost disgust, it is this human race. If there ever were a living nemesis of everything and anything on this planet, then it would be the human race.

And yet there are a few in this sad race of ours that make living worth for! In this case, only (an infinitesimally) small percentage of people gives the whole race a good name, which is otherwise totally fcked up and rolled-in-bull-crap.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my family, friends and more, and will continue to do so, all of whom are humans :-) It is the race itself that has gone down the gutter and will forever disgust me ~~~utter disgusted grimace on my face~~~

Just a few references on my blog about why I say ours is the most @#$~'ed up race to ever crawl (not walk!) the face of this otherwise very beautiful planet:

Wanna wear Fur? Think again! Very Seriously!

Money Trumps Everything

Infuriation

You know why humans suck?

An interesting question...

I am Back!

Random Thought

Very disturbing animal abuse at slaughter houses (Warning: Very graphic video link!)

Double Chocolate Cheesecake

2010-08-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

If you are overly restless, here's the recipe in a breeze...

24 Oreo Cookies, crushed

1/4 cup melted butter

4 pkg. (225g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Melted & cooled Semi-Sweet Chocolate

2 mashed potatoes/4 tbsp ground flax-seed/4 eggs

1/2 cup blueberries

Make It!

Heat oven to 325ºF. Mix crumbs and butter, press onto bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 10 min.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, sour cream and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add chocolate mix well. Add mashed-potatoes/ground flax-seed/eggs, 1 at a time until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 45 min. Cool completely. Refrigerate 5 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with berries.

Thanks to Sheetal for pointing out the recipe & giving baking tips and Amy for clearing some last-minute doubts :)
Now, before I proceed...

Though I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I experiment in other aspects of life far more than in my kitchen-life. So let me assure you that I am not planning on converting my blog into a cooking blog, this is one of the few pleasant aberrations to my regular experimentation in life.
Cheesecake is one of the few (or maybe THE ONLY one) American dessert I like. And given I have a sweet tooth, I thought of baking one. I have never baked anything before and so after lot of contemplation and seeking advice from advanced cooks, I jumped off to bake one myself. It turned out pretty delicious and many people asked the recipe, so thought of sharing with the larger audience. Plus, it is not very difficult to make.

Detailed Recipe:

Prep Time: about 60 mins, Total Time: 2hrs (add 5-8hrs to freeze)
Expertise Required: Intermediate
Taste Achieved: Pro-level!
(Special Tip: All you guys out there, this recipe is your perfect chance to impress your girlfriends. Seize it!)

Ingredients:

24 Oreo Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)

Tip: You can use some other biscuit/cracker if you like, say digestive ones. The thickness of crust doesn't change after baking, so use judgment on how many to crush depending on the thickness of crust you want.

1/4 cup butter, melted

4 pkg. (8oz, approx 225gm) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened, i.e. room temp.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

Tip: This is my addition to this recipe. If you concentrate well on the taste while eating a cheesecake, you will notice slight sourness in it. Sour cream is what will give you this nuance of sourness. You can use a few drops of lemon juice instead of sour cream.

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled

Tip: Skip this step to get plain traditional Cheesecake. If you want chocolatey taste without brown color, you can use white chocolate (friend's tip). But personally I am NOT a big fan of white chocolate. Hard-core brown chocolate is the way to go.

4 eggs equivalent of potatoes (or flax seeds) or if you eat eggs, then take 4 eggs

If you know some good substitutes to egg, please email me or leave a comment here. Please make a suggestion only if you have tried it personally. I have had success with flax-seed, but limited success with potatoes, guess I didn't smash'em well.

1/2 cup blueberries (sliced strawberries look sexy, or use your favorite fruit)

Action, Making the Crust: You can get one of those ready-made ones from the market: a pie-base, or even Oreos base. But given that it only takes a few minutes to make one yourself, I find making crust at home to be a more exciting option (and leaves some room for your creative juices to flow!) Plus you are not restricted by the sizes of ready-made ones.

Pre-heat oven to 325F

Crush 24 Oreos in a ziplock bag (guess you can even crush them in a mixer)

Add 1/4 cup melted butter, and mix well.

Line your baking pan with Foil and grease it well

Press the well-mixed crumbs on the base of the pan

Bake it for 10 miuntes

Remove from oven and let it cool

Your base is now ready! Set it aside while we make the batter.

Action, Making The Batter:

Beat Cream cheese (4pkt), sugar (1 cup), flour (2 tbsp) and vanilla (1 tbsp) until they are blended well
Melt your chocolate cubes/pieces, cool it and then slowly mix it with batter
Add eggs: 1 at a time. Mix the egg well before adding another
Add sour cream, this gives a subtle sourness essential for yummy taste
Blend everything well, ensuring that there are no air bubbles in the batter.
Pour it over the crust you baked and cooled a while ago
Bake for 45-50 mins at 350F
When done, cool it completely and then freeze it for 5-8 hours.
Remember the foil you put in the pan, now use it to remove the cake easily from the pan!

I can't tell you precisely how to know when it is done, but I'm pretty sure if you followed everything, then at the end of 50min baking period, your cheesecake is baked well. Some say, if the center of your cheesecake jiggles when shaken, it is done. But personally, I find it to be a very difficult (and imprecise) test to conduct! Of course, I guess, unless you are already good at baking.

Serving Tip:
Since the cake is creamy, it has a tendency to stick to the knife while cutting. I warm my knife a bit (by dipping it in hot water, or holding over a gas/stove for few seconds) before I cut the cake. That's my personal tip :-) Then, top the slice off with your favorite berry or fruit and enjoy finger-licking tasty Chocolatey Cheesecake. For once, don't bother much about the calories and indulge yourself :) If you think that this isn't enough calories for you, consider adding some cream! Nice hot steaming cup of Jasmine Green Tea makes for a perfect companion to the slice of this choclatey cheesecake.

I followed recipe to the word and I can say that it would be very difficult to get it wrong if you follow it properly. Here's the detailed video demonstrating the recipe I took as a reference: Philly Double Chocolate Cheesecake. My only deviation to this recipe was adding sour cream. (Nit-Pick: I don't know why it is called Double Chocolate Cheesecake, probably because both the crust as well as batter are made of chocolate?)
If you are looking for a lot of hard-core cooking recipes-tips-tricks, then check out my friends' blogs:
0. My Cooking Experiments, by SK
1. Recipes For All Occasions, by Priya
2. I Googled I Saw I Cooked, by Sangeetha

Tribute to Mohammed Rafi the Maestro

2010-07-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

On this fateful day, 31st of July in the year of 1980 God seemed to have had a selfish motive...
He wanted the silky-golden voice of Mohammed Rafi all to himself...
That day he might have taken away Rafi Sahab from us, but The Voice (as he was referred to) will always remain immortal within us.

Mohammed Rafi (Mohd. Rafi, Rafi Sahab) born on 24th of Dec 1924, was a man of utmost integrity: gifted with unarguably *the best* voice in mainstream Indian musical history and yet had the heart of a common bystander. Out of his singing career that spanned four decades, he ruled the arena of playback singing for well over two decades, which, incidentally, is also right in middle of what is considered to be the Golden Era of Hindi Film Music (1940s - 1980s). And yet his unprecedented success never got better of him. Through the peak of his career, he was NEVER late to studio for his recordings, he NEVER did a retake out his fault, he was NEVER arrogant of his momentous achievements and above all, he NEVER stopped his Riyaaz (practice, for Urdu). Indeed mark of a true Master.

He remains an inspiration to me for his simplicity, dedication and passion. And, to me, his humility is far more overarching achievement than all of his topmost accolades put together. A veritable king at heart with a golden voice, altruistic, utterly soft spoken, he was (and in my view will remain) *the* most versatile, BEST'est and DARLING'est of the singers. PERIOD. No one was, is and will ever be able to dislodge this position of his from my heart.

At the peak of his career, where movie directors and producers would kill just to have him sing for their movies, this altruistic singer would often sing for free or ridiculously minuscule token payment for people who couldn't afford his actual fees. I know of no singer of his caliber (actually, I am kind of lying here, there *is no* singer of his caliber in existence!) capable doing such a deed. I believe that it was this goodness in his heart that trickled into his songs which made it difficult to dislike them!

I'm greatly indebted to him for his songs, on some occasions, have made my life a little more bearable, few minutes at a time. I have grown up listening his songs and I will grow old listening his songs. While the credit of impeccably good songs is to be rightfully shared with Lyricists and Music Directors who made amazing numbers, it was Rafi, the instrument, the master, who can rightfully be credited with putting life into those compositions. He could command his voice to suit any situation, mood and actor on the screen. If composers could whip out something outta nowhere, Rafi had no difficulty enlivening it through the gift of his voice. He simply had the power to mesmerize millions the moment he opened his mouth.

In the process of giving his golden silky and versatile voice to many great music directors like Naushad, O.P. Nayyar, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, C. Ramachandra, Ravindra Jain, Shankar-Jaikishen, Madan Mohan, Kalyanji-Anadji, Rakesh Roshan (and many more) he literally put life into beautiful lyrics penned by the likes of Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Ravindra Jain, Shailendra, Majrooh Sultanpuri and bajilions more. As a byproduct of this, many actors of that era got catapulted into stardom overnight with a push as little as that of just one song sung by Rafi! Such was the magic of his voice. ~~~muah~~~

Vividh Bharati, in his honor, is playing only Rafi's songs today for 24hrs. Get an earful if you want a taste of his voice. As a homage to this humble maestro, I earnestly urge you guys to REFRAIN from listening any bull-crap royally-raped remakes of his songs, otherwise widely known as remixes, at least for today. Not even the ones re-sung by anyone else. No one can replace the voice of a True Master himself, please pay due respect to maestro: Mohammed Rafi.

He might be no more with us, but his voice will always be with us.
Some people might be thinking, "but it is just a song", "he was just a singer", "you didn't even know him" ...
I cannot argue with those people, but you might have realized by now that I am serious even about fun and entertainment I have! (in short, KMA!)

I would love to share one, no, two, no wait a few songs from each one of his masterful categories. Be it romantic, classical, sad, serious, patriotic, flirting, or any other genre you can think of, and Rafi could sing it with no difficulty in one take. Each one better than the other.
These songs are some of my favorites, but I believe every one of them was super-duper-tuper hit!

Comedy/Carefree

Romantic

Serious/Touching/Patriotic:

Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega
Wadiyan Mera Daman
O Duniya Ke Rakhwale

Sad Romantic

Yaad Na Jaye
Choo Lene Do Nazuk Hothon Ko
Tu Chhupi Hai Kahan
Tu Kahan Ye Bata
Dil Ke Jharoke Mein

Sad Touching:

Babul Ki Duaayein Leti Jaa

Video

Audio

Aaj Purani Raahon Se
Akele Hain Chale Aao-Raaz

Flirting/Teasing

Take your time as you listen through the list, but meanwhile... a minute's silence for greatest of singers of all time: darling Rafi Sahab.

We will always miss you Rafi. May God bless his soul.

Links:
0. Mohammed Rafi (wikipedia)
1. Mohammed Rafi (website dedicated to Rafi)
2. Vividh Bharati (wikipedia)

Pushing Too Hard?

2010-07-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

... Really? I didn't think so, at least not until I was forced to rethink...
Given that summer is here and playing outdoors is not only possible but also too much fun, I want to play everything and every time I can: Volleyball, Football, Jogging, Climbing, Hiking, etc. etc. Who knew I would have pushed a bit too hard, for I thought I was pacing things right, clearly I miscalculated and could have done a better job.

When stepping out of the ground/court/gym, the feel of shirt clinging steadfastly to my skin because of being completely drenched in healthy sweat during workout always makes me euphoric.

So, one fateful evening, in hopes of getting my fix of the above euphoria, I trotted happily to gym for my regular workout. Lately I have developed an insatiable push to run more and more miles (probably out of desire to survive full-length soccer game). I hopped onto the treadmill and clocked slightly more than the 2 mile mark. I have had some knee problems in past, so I was very glad when I was able to hit the 2mi mark once again, without a break and any apparent knee pain. Hungry for more, I want to push myself a little harder. So after some pushups and abs, I headed over to the stair-climber and clocked a few more minutes of intense cardio on it.

Tired & muscles healthily fatigued, nothing hinted what was in the bag of (bad) surprises for me just a few hours from now. ~shudder~
After good amount of stretching (I am mentally conditioned to religiously stretch after every workout), I took nice warm shower, reached home, had my dinner, talked to HQ for a while and blissfully hit bed.

Excruciating pain in the knee jolted me in middle of the night. I thought it must be just a bad posture, so I shrugged WTF and went to sleep again. Only to wake up within seconds. The pain was too discomforting and intense to be just bad sleeping posture. I woke up in horrors of horror fearing that something was terribly wrong. I recapped through my activities of last week only to find normal amount of workout (football, volleyball, jogging). Nothing seemed too out of the place, only a bit much more intense than what I was used to doing a few weeks ago. But I have caught up to it ... I thought.

I swallowed one brufen and retried sleeping. No luck, I get up again and pop another tablet. Still no luck, frustrated in agony, I pop another pain killer. Still no luck, I ran out of options and gave up. I didn't even consider ER because all they would have done is make me wait for umpteen hours (since this wasn't a life threatening situation) and eventually would have given me a much-much stronger pain killer. At home, I had the option of sleeping, at least I could try sleeping. I now lay in bed holding my knee dreaming horrors through rest of the night. I don't know when I dozed off because I had lost track of time, which I strongly maintain had stood still.

I took an appointment with doc and after examining the X-ray he proclaimed I have an inflamed cartilage, he said I had just pushed too hard, that's about it. Happy but still highly disappointed in myself (for miscalculation and not-so-easy-to-spot carelessness), I walked away with one new problem to worry about: Runner's Knee!
This implies no physical activities for a few days, I don't know how am I going to survive it :( But I have no choice. I have to live without my regular fix for a while now.

For the curious and medically inclined souls, in medical terms, the problem is that there is an imbalance in the relative strengths of Quadriceps and Hamstring muscles. This causes undue pressure on and friction of bones in the knees during intense workouts. This results in inflammation of the cartilage between Femur and Tibia, causing shooting pain. I'm hoping to pick up some directed exercises once I recover, which I so desperately wish happens soon enough.

Refreshingly Tired!

2010-07-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today (Sunday) morning I got up scratching my a.. head and reflected on the previous day: Saturday. Only to realize that it went pretty well for an unplanned weekend. And the first thing, of course, that struck me after that was: Aahh... a nice post material! Especially when I haven't blogged in a while and the post I'm working on for the last two months haven't taken a final form yet. Indy's interrogative chat further solidified the highlights of this post.

Woke up early morning to a nice 2 hour football (soccer) game. It had two amazing bits in it:

the game itself, of course and
the sun was burning bright! It was strenuous to play in intense sun, but the sun makes me feel good, specially when I don't see of him often.

Just when I thought I will take a nice warm shower and sleep like a baby, if not through rest of the Saturday, then at least for a hour or so, I said let me catch up with Arun (aka Anna). We haven't had a talk to heart's content recently. So the next 2-3 hrs I was on call with Anna (talked for a while with Su as well). We talked from technology to philosophy to entrepreneurship to many different things under the sun. While talking, I took the opportunity to cook myself some nice Pasta for lunch(thanks to Vabs for teaching me the recipe). I was hoping to have it for dinner as well (lazy a$$), but roomies liked it too. I say so because after a while the pot was empty :) Feels good when people eat what you cook without muttering under their breaths :)

With stomachful of pasta, I sat down for a nice 1-1 private time with my laptop :) I later connected with yet another friend whom I haven't met in a long while, Amy. A talk that culminated into Bhel-for-dinner program at her place. Just then, called Ani to sync up on some movie plans.

When all the calls were done with, I watched something for a while on laptop, until my eyelids were heavy with sleep and I had irresistible desire to hit bed really HARD. After a nice refreshing nap (followed by steaming cuppa that had Mom-made super-special chai-masala in it!), had a LONG talk with my Mom, brother and Pa. As soon as I got off from that call, Motya (another of my old time buddies) called! God, for a moment I was feeling like I was in a call center!

Another nice long chat with him and soon after some household chores, it was time for dinner, Bhel! So me, Vish & Aveek reached Amy's place for a nice dinner. Though easy to make, it takes some culinary skills to make a tasty Bhel. Thanks to Amy, she nails it every single time. Eating Bhel while watching Welcome (one of my favorite'st movies), was more than I could have asked from the night. As soon as we were done with dinner, Ani called to confirm he's got the tickets for the show. It was time for the much talked about movie in the town: Inception.

We reached a little late, so we had to sit in the front rows with 6-storey gigantic screen almost looming over us. Inception was nice, while I liked the concept of planting a thought by tapping into someone's psyche, I found the movie to be too complex to enjoy. More than 4 levels of dreams-in-dreams is not only complex to comprehend, but laughably ludicrous. It, thus, doesn't lodge Matrix-1(1999) and Jurassic Park(1993) from their top positions as best Sci-Fi movie from my list. That said, I would watch it a few more times to at least understand it completely. But I'm sure that even when I understand it completely, Matrix won't drop down in the list (which BTW, is leaps-and-bounds above Avatar as well).

I have a feeling I'm forgetting something, but... with that, the amazing day that started at 6am in the morning came to an abrupt end at 3am in the night! None of this was planned before hand, except the morning game. What a day! This is a lot of action I have had in one day in many many months!

When I finally hit the bed, I said to myself with a smile: I'm refreshingly tired today!

Foolhardy

2010-06-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

When I get a throat infection, in a day or two it takes the form of a more severe nose infection, aka. cold. Under normal(???) circumstances I would take a course of antibiotic and be done with it in 2-3 days.

This time, though, I went a little overboard with my curiosity & experimentation. At the hint of throat infection (I have NO idea where I picked it up from!) I started household remedy: hot milk + turmeric + honey. For two continuous days I consumed the above formula multiple times a day, which almost cured the throat infection. Wonderful! But what I totally sidelined was the fact that the infection had already branched into cold and took a solid enough ground in my body. Yet, I thought, "meh... do I really need antibiotic to combat this? I am sure it will heal without it, throat infection did!". And before I knew, within following 2 days I was totally bed-ridden with cold.

For last 3 nights, the ritual has been:

attempt to go to sleep at night
keep dry-coughing every minute until I can't take it any more

And every one of those coughs send out deadening impulses to neurons in my brain which then makes me feel like the brain is going to explode like a grenade the very instant :( And it (the bacteria/infection/whatever) has a nice annoying trick up its sleeve: you can't have just one cough at a time, you need to have burst of coughs!

get up, make a cup of steaming hot milk (with turmeric + honey) and wash it down that darn throat
Repeat: goto step 0

Until I don't know when I fell asleep!

I hate (maybe I'm even scared!) going to doctors here, in US of A. For the state I was in, I'm more than sure it would have been more than a day's worth of ordeal: unbearable wait time, umpteen tests, then some more wait time and I'm sure I would have had to undergo myriad of body tests (including, I suspect, the much dreaded colonoscopy! Of course it has NOTHING to do with throat infection, that is the whole point!).

So finally, yesterday night I caved in when my brother, whom I call 1/4th of a doctor because he is a Dentist :-P, vented almost full steam at my nonsense audacity :) I then took the strong dose of antibiotic I keep stocked, Azithromycin, it helps combat certain upper respiratory infections.

I'm a little better today, in the sense that I could get up, take shower, eat breakfast, drive to office and churn out some code, all in one shot without a single shut-eye in between! The coughing hasn't stopped yet, but I'm hoping it would by tomorrow. It better stop by tomorrow, because as much of a pain as it is, it is HIGHLY annoying and distracting :'(

Money Trumps Everything!

2010-05-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

The other day I was visiting my doctor, and the wait before I could actually see him was insanely long, even while a prior appointment. I can't sit without doing anything, the restless in me forced me to read all the muscle charts on the wall on my previous visit itself. (I'm fine, thanks for asking btw!). On this second visit, I revised some of the charts and then wanted something more to read. Generally I get along my own book, but when I don't get one, I would read almost anything during such waits (probably even the brain-dead magazines like Cosmopolitan!). But I was in luck to have some better options (really? better?), TIME Magazine, it was.

When I opened it, my eyes fell on the Toyota recall episode. I have been totally disconnected with this news, so I thought of reading on. There were heated insults against Mr. Toyoda (President of Toyota Motors) by some demented people. I read that the US government had called Mr. Toyoda himself to be insulted, interrogated and to apologize publicly.

I read all of that first as it was all in bold and blocked fonts, hoping to get the summary, which I did: Money Trumps Everything!
Then I read the first few lines...
"... that brings the total number of deaths to 34 since 2000 allegedly related to unintended acceleration in Toyotas".
What in the !@#$ing hell!
F@#$ing 34, are you kidding me? No you are not getting the point here! These are alleged deaths, that too by yet unproven problems in the car, discounting all the driver error. And believe me, given that millions drive Toyotas across the US-of-A, I won't be surprised if 34 people aren't best of the drivers! And for that, the dimwitted wussies are making SUCH a big fuss. Calling the President of Toyota, such a huge press, massive recalls, threats, public insults and humiliation, unprecedented fines, legal turmoils, etc. etc. Please don't get me wrong, whatever the reason, I deeply regret the deaths. But that is NOT the point..

Point I'm trying to make is; and this is what I spent rest of the wait time at clinic; every single day if not millions, thousands die due smoking related ailments, mostly due to the dreaded cancer. And not just die, they die a freaking slow and painfully torturous death. Not to mention the torture the victims' close family members suffer to have to see this torture and live through it! E.V.E.R.Y @#$ing day! (Note: I lost my grandpa a while ago to cancer, so trust me when I say it is torturous enough just to see a cancer patient struggle let alone see someone pass away. And it won't be an understatement if I said that you wouldn't wish it on worst of your enemies).

God knows how many families have smoke ruined. I'm sure equal number of people die due to driving under the influence of alcohol. Almost equal under diseases caused by alcohol. Not to mention nuisance caused by frivolous alco-holes. And what about the f__ktards in Wall St. that ruined millions of lives, made millions jobless, homeless and foodless overnight! Giving them, not instant, but slow painful & humiliating deaths!

Tell me HOW the hell is THAT not any more criminal and worse than the alleged 34 deaths by accidental acceleration! And yet they aren't as much talked about lowly! Forget about law reform, fines, insults, or anything which will make it hard (if not impossible) to do such things in future.

Come to health insurance itself, you read left-right-and-center everyday how the needy are rejected coverage just so the CEOs can take back hefty bonuses to spend on their shitty w___es. Haven't you ever read how hard big Pharmas are (actually they were, they aren't any more now got what they wanted) struggling to keep the new better and cheap medical treatments away from hospitals? And BTW, did you know that the big insurers have HUGE stakes in tobacco industries!!!
Tell me HOW the hell is this not worse than the alleged 34 deaths by accidental acceleration. Keep noting the keyword 'alleged'!

What about current BP oil rig fiasco? How many people will suffer from the environmental damage caused by one of the biggest oil-spills in recent history? Yet, no matter what, the CEO of BP will still go back to his king-sized mansion probably in armored vehicle with hefty bonuses and have sweetest of sleep, while many will suffer from the aftermath of this spill.
Tell me HOW the hell is this not worse than the alleged 34 deaths by accidental acceleration.

And how many people have successfully sued any of these! Forget about suing, nobody dares lift a finger at them! Why! M O N E Y! With money comes great power! And that is what everybody bows down to. MONEY is THE ONLY common denominator in all of these cases. Money, in today's world has ability to trump everything.

The amount of money poured into lobbying so that these things can function as they are functioning, ensures nobody points a finger at them. They smartly poke holes into laws by saying, well, the pack of cigarettes says it is injurious to health to smoke. How can we help if people are stupid enough to smoke the shitty poison we make! And we dim-wittedly accept it as a rational argument, forgetting the very fact that if it weren't those assholes, there wouldn't be any cigarettes to smoke in the first place! Well, then, by similar argument, I'm sure the vehicle agreement states somewhere that manufacturer is not responsible for deaths resulting from using its machine! And we are not even talking about allegations, it is well known fact that smoking DOES cause cancer, and it sure does cause addiction and related permanent problems. Other respiratory diseases. Alcohol DOES cause multitude of problems. Health insurers ARE running away from their responsibilities to make unprecedented profits.

All these thoughts ran through me instantly within few seconds. So fast, I couldn't even grasp all of it, until yesterday when I had few minutes to capture the residue of what was still lingering around.

I was so numb at that instant that my heart started racing too fast at the mere thought of living in the world with such dickheaded demented people.
The rest of my appointment was a breeze, with me having difficulty following what the doctor was saying. All I caught was, nothing to worry ~~~blip~~~ take a break ~~~blip~~~ the pain will subside followed by a smile. Blips are points in time where I lost track of what the doc was saying. What about those poor b____ds, I wanted to ask, what about those poor b___ds, doctor, who has a smoke in his hand right now, one who lost his house, one who is abusing someone under the influence of alcohol, a father who's running around to scavenge enough money so that he can treat is ailing son just because the insurance company decided to drop the coverage? Will they be fine? But I'm glad that the words didn't spill out... I went back to my office to silently pound on keyboard and trying to shrug away the thoughts about the screwed up state of humanity, if we can still claim it exists! ~~~sigh~~~

But don't you worry, the word humanity/rationality/goodness will soon disappear from dictionaries, or even worse, will have NEW meaning altogether.And the future generations will never have to worry about it anymore, as these notions we understand today themselves will be extinct! Just as is depicted in George Orwell's 1984.

Seriously, I sometimes really feel sorry for current era. On one side we have superb mechanization that eases our lives, connects us from across the globe in the blink of an eye, eradicated many of diseases, genetically engineer plants but on other hand... this sh!t. Guess, the proverb, after all, is not entirely a moot: There is a price to pay for everything. But, I ask, is this price worth paying? Despite general delirious consensus, I still maintain it isn't!

God bless us all, we all need him more than mankind ever did before this.

With all this imbecilic feat of what was one a man playing circus in my mind, I sometimes have real tough time going to sleep ... what about you?
People, we have MUCH bigger problems to fight (tobacco, alco-holes, pharmas, insurance companies, Wall St., terrorists, lobbyists, etc.). Think about what the real problem is, before you try to solve it!

Some really very thought provoking articles to read that compliment this post:

Health insurers want you to keep smoking, Harvard doctors say
BP Oil Spill: 7 Secrets BP Doesn't Want You To Know
CIGNA Employee Flips Off Mother Of Dead Girl Denied Transplant
Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits
Oil Reaches Louisiana Shores, photos that depict the devastation!
Totally random, but very interesting insights into current medical practices:

- - - - - - - - - - - update Thu 08/19/2010 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

U.S. Study Points to Driver Error in Many Toyota Crashes

Treasure Trove

2010-05-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

For all those who are wondering that my blog has turned into a bickering philosophical diatribe, here... KMA :-P

Very few people can understand the joy of digging through goodies your Mom-and-Pop sent you from across the world! Just 2 days back I got one such bag and I cannot describe the joy of digging into it, just like we did as kids when daddy used to come home every evening and we would rip open his suitcase to steal away anything new and exciting :) I'm just re-living that joyous moment :)

Most of things in the bag could be easily bought here, what is missing in thouse bought items is the love in making and sending it :) In addition to love and effort what is different in it is Mom's meticulous touch to packing, nice hand-written labels on each packet (so I don't mistake one thing for another), detailed and never-ending instructions on phone on how to mix-and-match-and-consume the yummy stuff, and tons of other niceties that she had been planning and collecting for over a month!

Since 2 days my Mom's been forcing me to open it all and see what's-what. I'm of the opinion that I don't want to open it up all at once and burst the bubble of surprise. It is more fun to keep digging through the trove and find a pearl every day :) That induces a more lasting empyrean joy!

Love you Mom and Pop! You are the best'est of the best! ~~~muah~~~

Note: Special thanks to Vishal's Mom for reserving one full bag just for me & getting it all the way from India to me :)

Understanding Life: Curse or a Boon?

2010-04-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

Another dose of random thought...

Random Thought 61:

The more you understand life, the more precisely you know *what* you want from life, the messier it looks. And more painful it becomes to live.

These are the words (not verbatim) that Pal shared in an exchange of a few soulful words we had the other day. I could have never put the essence of one of the many important lessons of life in such a concise form. The words have, ever since, stuck in my head and just refuse to go away. And so thought of wedging them into yours too.

Sometimes I really ponder hard on the benefits of living the 'ignorance-is-bliss' kind of lifestyle. Occasionally I get torn between the benefits-n-bliss of ignorance vs the fear of stepping into a mess because of ignorance. So far, to my knowledge, knowing more has only exacerbated the pain. Yet something in me refuses to adopt the way of ignorance ~~~sigh~~~

Probably, as with everything else in life (and computer science!), best of the solutions are the ones which are hybrid of many. I guess, therein, somewhere lies the answer to my vexing question.

Pearls of Mother Nature

2010-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Though not as much as I would like, I have been able to spend a little more time on photography than I had been able to spend the last year.

Here's one of my favorite macro shots that I took 2 days back. A lot of my friends liked it too, and so I thought it is worth sharing here on the blog.

Since I always like to read about story behind the photos I like, I would first love to bore you guys with a little background about this shot:
Though the spring is officially here, the sight of sun is still a distant dream. So when the sun shone (unexpectedly) one fine morning, I carried my camera on the way to office. Since rain had just stopped, I thought this would be perfect opportunity to shoot some delicate water droplets on plants. Bingo! I was lucky. When I reached the gates, sun was still up (not as bright though) and the sky's shower tap was tightly closed. I pulled out my camera immediately, and spend the next half an hour or so funnily crouching to shoot droplets off the grass blades just 6 inches above the ground. So prepared I was, that I had even put on a pair of gloves, the temperature was around 41F (5C). I'm sure people peering through their office windows must have had a good morning's laugh and fun time seeing a funny guy shooting grasses at extremely close range, stepping into mud and almost falling onto them :)

And here's one of the few shots I liked, will share more soon.
(click on photo or here to see it in higher resolution).

Watch the complete fun album here: Water Droplets!

I love the grass blades seen in the tini-tiny water droplet!

Pearls of Mother Nature From First Macro Shots

Here's another macro that I liked, Heart of the flower, which I clicked the day I got my macro.

Heart of the flower From First Macro Shots

Funny Invoice

2010-03-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Recently my keyboard's 'n' key died on me, and I had to get a new one. So, I had my admin order one for me (oddly we didn't have any spares!). So an order is placed with some vendor (thereafter referred to as Smart-Beeeep). The keyboard arrives in time... but what set me off laughing aloud alone in the office for a while was this freaking stupid notice on the keyboard box:

What? You didn't notice? Well, read it again. Don't you find something amiss! Well, sure you must. I'm not a legal-buff, but this piqued my interest:

Before You Open Any Packages:
- Please verify contents...

How the heck am I going to see what's in the package WITHOUT opening it! I had a good laugh alone in the office, pondering the legalese nonsense perpetrated here. The fear of litigation here (by here in mean US of A) is soooooo high, that everybody's first order of business is to Cover-My-Own-Ass first, everything else is secondary. If you observe closely this is _the_ basic premise of any business done here, that is what it boils down to: from health care through real-estate through such menial package deliveries.

Digging deeper, what this notice means is that if I had found anything but keyboard in the keyboard box, legally I can't touch the vendor! Why, because I violated the contract of NOT checking the contents before opening the package! Doesn't matter that it is humanly impossible (most of us don't have super-human abilities to see through a box!), what matters is I didn't follow the instructions! The only way to comply with this is to buy one of those fancy X-ray body scanning machines they are putting up at airports!
Given I somehow smuggle one of those huge x-ray machines out of airport and do find what I don't expect to find in the sealed package, what follows next on the invoice are instructions on return policy!

I am Back!

2010-03-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

This might have been the longest break on my blog...
For all those of you who thought I was dead, well I've got some news for ya!

A lot happened in the last few months, some good, some bad, and some utterly despicable! So I took as much time as I could shrinking into my inner sanctum to regain some of the much lost sanity, which totally precluded blogging.

In retrospect, when I reflect back on last year, it was nothing short of a trip through the f@#$ing hell itself!
I wouldn't have wished such excruciating pain and turmoil even to the worst of my enemies.
The pessimist I am, I do maintain very strong optimism that very few can even dream of achieving. In last few months, that optimism almost died. Metaphorically, I was so close to being non-existent. But whatever happened, at the least, today when I wake up, I feel the worse is behind me, and I don't see a dagger hanging by my neck every day!

If you are wondering, then NO, I am not thinking 'Why the @#$! me. Why the heck did it have to happen to me'. Fortunately, I don't waste my time quibbling over such thoughts, I long ago grew beyond it. But what I do wonder is whether things really HAD to happen the way they did? Lot could have happened some other way to the same end without those rough edges. And I do wonder when, where and how did my judgment fail me.

Life doesn't stop, though, and so can't I! Keep saying to myself, 'All Is Well, just keep treading along'. Thanks to my few dearly loved ones who helped me a lot through that arduous journey. So, expect that I'm back, after a sabbatical, and I'm going to kick some real butts now!

On a slightly related note...
Over years and again and again and again, when I think THIS is it, a man cannot be any more stupid and senseless than this, invariably, I get a knockout kick in the gonads. And when I do regain my senses, I open my eyes to a whole new bewildering level of human stupidity and senselessness! The worse ensues when it just doesn't stop there! And as if that were not enough, you must listen to the ranting that corroborates their actions! Total blasphemy! I have learned that a man's capacity for idiocy and senselessness is as infinite as the universe itself. And what goes for stupidity, goes double for greed. I infer this not from one or two experiences, but many many micro- and macro- events that have happened around me over the last year and well beyond.

If nothing, no matter what, there is one thing that you can always count on:

Human stupidity (and of course, greed) will NEVER EVER fail to surprise you!

Now that I'm back, here's what you can expect:

Lots and lots of photos (sample)
- I had been so heads down sorting out my shit, that I have more than 6 months worth of photos piled up that I myself never looked at. And so never got around sharing them
Some photography tips-n-tricks

and that too with some code! Right, photography with some code sounds like unadulterated geeky fun, ain't it!

Redesigned homepage and some new content too
- been wanting to move to Drupal for ages, but haven't gotten around doing it yet
- once I do, expect some tutorials, or links to get you started
Movie Reviews
- Gosh, it looks like it has been ages since I have posted any movies reviews ~~sigh~~
And yes, do expect response to my last post and if time permits, an update too!
And also expect some usual ramblings.

Moral 0
Never let anyone touch your inner sanctum, for once they reach there, it won't be too long before they start toying with it. It is one place where no one has any business being there. Guard it, with your life if you have to!

Moral 1
Have some invariables (tangible and/or non-tangible) in your life that you can always count (and fall back) on.

Showdown Internet Explorer (IE) vs Firefox

2009-12-20T11:01:00.058-08:00

I promised to post a detailed showdown of IE vs Firefox... And here it is, one of the most detailed feature comparison of Internet Explorer vs Firefox. (IE = Internet Explorer).

Being _forced_ into using IE, I have had a better opportunity to constantly compare IE with Firefox. Prior to which my usage of IE was sporadic. (if you work in the corporate world, almost everywhere chances are that at least some of local web-infrastructure will work ONLY with IE ~~sigh~~).

Views here are solely mine, and might not be agreeable to general (esp. /non-(tech|browser)/ savvy) audience. (If you can understand that regex, you most likely should consider reading ahead). Being a programmer (and an inquisitive soul) my needs & my expectations are completely orthogonal to that of a common Tom, Dick and Harry. But like many geeks out there, I'm sure there will be some intersection between us on some of the issues I discuss below.

Quick Links for easy reference:

Tabs and Tabs Ordering

I DO NOT intend to start browser flames war, whether I (or you) like it or not, both the browsers are there to remain through browsing eons. So I will delete all inflammatory comments. Constructive suggestions, comments (esp. highlighting incorrect or missing info and/or features) are most welcome.

I do not intend to change you into a Firefox addict (but do tell me if that happens :)). The primary purpose of this post is to answer the questions I constantly get: "So, why is it that you like Firefox so much" or "People (!@#$ who are these people!) keep claiming that the latest IE is awesome, why don't you give it a spin!" Though I initially switched to Firefox because IE6 sucked BIG BIG time, IE was darn slow, IE was buggy and IE had/has no extensibility, today I remain loyal to Firefox for a multitude of reasons. Over the period of years, browsing technology has bloomed (almost exploded, for the lack of better word).
So, here, I present this post as a formal answer to that very question:
Why I like Firefox over Internet Explorer?
-or-
Why I detest Internet Explorer so much?

I am huge fan of Firefox, but I have tried HARD not to let it bias my views against IE. That said, my browsing habits for sure are acutely attuned to Firefox-way-of-life. This will make some IE's features ridiculous for me to adopt, because I am too used to Firefox way. It might also make you feel some of the differences are artificial. I will try to keep such idiosyncrasies to a minimum.

I tend to pick habits that seem more logical for my reasoning and which tends to improve my efficiency. And the metrics of efficiency, as we know, vary from person to person. Mine are simple: Fewest possible keystorkes, and where use of mouse is absolutely necessary, I should be able to get over with the moving, positioning and clicking the mouse ASAP.

All that said, it, nonetheless, would be interesting to read my commentary about Firefox vs IE. It was a good exercise for myself to point out nuances I care for. Hope it will enlighten some of you.

top

Tabs and Tabs Ordering

My constant frustration with IE, lately, is its unintuitive tabs ordering and no way to change it. This won't bug you if you don't have more than a handful tabs open, and your browsing session doesn't span more than a hour or so. Mine spans weeks, and have 20's of tabs open at any given time, so I care. A LOT.

I like to order tabs: most used and permanently open towards left, and more volatile ones to the right. Example: dictionary and online radio sites are always on, so they bubble towards left, while one-time google searches tend to be on right.

This is only one of the places where I have added Tab Mix Plus addon to the stock installation for comparison. Because it is so insanely useful and creative, I believe it should be a part of every installations. So install Tab Mix Plus before you intend to go ahead!
Sorry, but there doesn't seem to be a comparable addon for IE!

Tab Focusing (Ctrl+Tab)

Ctrl+Tab

Default: Just select the next tab, tab to the right of current one
Tab List Menu Popup: Instead of switching immediately, it presents me with a nice list of open tabs to switch to
MRU: Most Recently Used order. This is perfect match for my usage. I didn't get used to this, I _wanted_ this, and if you think about it for a moment, maybe you will understand why. Again, don't bother with this if you don't have many tabs open at any given time.
Mix of option ii and iii: The tab list is sorted in MRU order!

Firefox++

Tab Closing (Ctrl+W)

The last tab I used (MRU: My favorite!)
First Tab
Last Tab
Left Tab
Right Tab
Last Opened Tab (i.e. most recently opened)
Opener Tab (i.e. the tab that caused the closing tab to be opened)

Firefox++, Firefox++, Firefox++

Opening New Tabs (Ctrl+T)

Open new tabs next to current one
Open other tabs next to current one (ones opened by link, etc.)
Open other tabs next to current one, but change order, i.e. put it on left instead of (intuitively) to right.
Open duplicated tabs next to original
Then, there is option NOT to overwrite current tab, instead open new tabs when I choose to open links from: Bookmarks, new address in address bar, search, history, etc.

Firefox++

Miscellaneous

(I'm talking about anchors with target="_blank")

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Add-Ons/Extensibility

Firefox's extensibility is what has won it the accolades from the geekdom.
Firefox has zillions of (useful) addons. To name a few of the most useful/powerful:

Tab Mix Plus, for power-user tabbing options
AdBlock Plus, for ad-blocking (review link)
Firebug, for debugging-n-tinkering
Xmarks/Foxmarks, for backing up bookmarks/passwords to online account

IE: No equivalent!
Note: Don't mistake IE's pop-up blocker with more powerful and generic regex ready way to block any irritating (esp. flashing) ads. in Firefox.
Apparently, xmarks works with IE too. I didn't care to try it out.

One of the good measures of a good product is number of units sold. So, by similar argument, Most Popular or Most Downloaded add-ons are the candidates you are most likely to try out first, because they are used by most number of people.

Such a list for Firefox and Internet Explorer clearly shows the divide between the people who use these two browsers. If I were new to Firefox, I would try almost every single of Firefox's most popular add ons. As for IE, I wouldn't try even single one, I see very little value addition in IE's most popular addons.
(The lists are few weeks old, but I checked today and they aren't too different now.)
Firefox Most Popular Addons:

Adblock Plus
FlashGot
Video DownloadHelper
NoScript
Greasemonkey
DownThemAll!
Firebug
IE Tab
AnyColor
Download Statusbar
Cooliris
Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks)
AutoPager
SmarterFox: Browse Faster
FoxTab
Flagfox
WOT
Stylish
GooglePreview
FireFTP

IE Most Downloaded Addons:

New York Times Instant Search
Bing Search
Microsoft Silverlight
Delicious Bookmarks Add-on
Wikipedia Visual Search
Yahoo! Search Suggestions
Amazon Search Suggestions
Weather from Bing
Watch eBay Items
eBay Visual Search
Bing Maps
Yahoo! Local Maps

top

Powerful Bookmarks Manager

I wonder why IE remains sooooooo dumb-witted and utterly useless on this front.

Search

NOT

any part

mis

Mis

mis

'Address-bar and Nuances

Tagging Bookmarks

Sorting (and Searching)

date added

date last visited

alphabetical

Random Thought

2009-11-26T20:08:00.007-08:00

Another really really long silence :( ~~~sigh~~~

I'm either becoming a really really lazy a$ or too busy or too absorbed, centric, distracted, or too workaholic, lost OR worse... a dangerous potpourri of the all :-S At this point it is beyond my rational abilities to point what it is. But what I can sense is I have been lost for quite some time now. I fail to see that bright light at of the tunnel which reflects as a glimmer of hope in the heart. One feels like that when one haven't had a sense of achievement for a while, not even in smallest of things he has touched, yet wants to keep kicking harder and harder.

With that crap out of our way, I have to say that I have been working for a very long time on many things to put up on blog. My Random Thoughts, is one of them.

But before I dive into it, let me explain what I mean by my my random thought, and set some understanding of what to expect. So that you can make an informed(???) decision of whether to read the BS or not.

What is a Random Thought
From time to time, absolutely random (yet seemingly meaningful) thoughts play circus in my mind and heart. Most, if not all, cannot be systematically proven, and relies mostly on common-sense (which is VERY uncommon) personal experiences and idiosyncrasies, systematic (but, again, unprovable logical) deductions. Most of them are of the type, I think..., I wonder..., Why..., I believe..., , etc. Or opinions, if you will. I have always wanted to keep log of such eccentric bizarre thoughts, but never succeeded. That is until 3 months back when I started collecting some of them.

I will refrain from explaining why's of these thoughts. Not because it makes it any easier to shove any BS down your throats, but because the very definition of 'random thought' deems it so! If there were an easy-to-explain basis to it, it wouldn't be called random. Would it!

Besides that, even if I attempted to explain/reason/rationalize them, I could do NO justice to them in any of the languages (literary or otherwise) that I know of. Most thoughts will strike to you as plain baseless and even stupid. You will rarely understand the depth of them, unless you believe in (extra-terrestrial) means of communication other than spoken and written literals. (Then why the hell are you putting them here!!!) Yet some might surprisingly strike a chord in you. (Now you know why! Don't you!) I would definitely appreciate your views and sincere feedback, but probes into 'why' might usually mean talking to my hands for the sheer lack of appropriate knowledge (on my part).

So here is the zeroth dose of one of my many random thoughts to come....

Random Thought 18:
People (who are these people? everybody?) usually perpetrate the false impression that world indeed has become a better place compared to say a century ago. While this is true of some outwardly measurable things, the effective quality of life (aka happiness, which also presents itself in the forms of peace or satisfaction) has indeed gone down the drain. It is easy to measure the former (say zero people die of tuberculosis, we can calculate the value of pi to 100th decimal place in less than a second, the AK-47 can put a hole through 600 humans per minute, etc.). But it is nearly impossible to numerically measure the EFFECTIVE QUALITY of life. There seems to be no universal metric to measure it. (I'm not denying that there been no attempts to do it, but I'm sure if there are any, they are by no means universal).
On top of that, quality-of-life itself is something very difficult to define, let alone measure. So by classic scientific definition my argument is senseless. How can you say something is improving or deteriorating which you cannot measure! Talk of some randomness in thoughts, huh! Yet, here I am, increasingly having a sense that

world as of today (as a whole), if not worse, is not any better than a century ago.

It is not that I hate the advancements we have made, naah, far from that. It is the detrimental byproducts of the advancements (as a summation) that, in my view, outpace the advancements.
Any takers? Opponents?

Recent Escapades: Little Si, Columbia Gorge & St. Helens and Mt. Rainier Paradise Point

2009-10-04T11:50:00.016-07:00

Of lately, life seems to have been degraded to a cat-n-mouse game, comically akin to Tom-n-Jerry, only, not comic. For a while it seems I am ahead of life (or at least have had a good grasp of it) and the very same instant it gets ahead of me! In a sense, it seems to be a meaningless and frivolous rat-race. To cloud out all the unnecessary clutter from mind, I have had a few escapades. Following are few worth sharing, just because it was so easy to digitally trap them with my camera.

0. Little Si

Dandelion From Little Si

At an elevation of 1576 feet, Little Si (pronounced sigh) does not seem to be a lofty peak, but let not the raw number fool you. Little Si gains that elevation in just 2.2 miles (each way). The first mile or so is very gentle and mild. But the next mile offers quite imposing cliffs. It surely is not meant for beginners. Be prepared with some food, ample water and some stamina.

Also, unlike most other treks, the summit is NOT picturesque, another disappointment. And neither is the trail so beautiful. So if you plan to go to Little Si, make sure that your ONLY intention is exercise. Not to say that a good photographer can make beautiful pictures out of anything. I tried too, and will let you judge how I fared. And don't forget to take some warm clothing, it can be pretty windy at the top, which hits you hard when you are all sweaty.

Once at the summit, have some nice lunch, probably with a hot drink and then head down back to your car.

Directions:
Drive Interstate 90 and take the main North Bend exit, heading left into town. Turn right on North Bend Way and drive a couple miles to the Mount Si Road. Turn left, cross the bridge over the Snoqualmie River and park near the bridge in the marked lot. It is difficult to miss the parking lot.

More information: http://www.mountsi.com/info.shtml

1. Columbia Gorge and St. Helens

Brothers Talesara! From Columbia Gorge

This was a very hectic 550+ miles trip in just 36 hours! Driving 550 odd miles was kind of fun, but it was also very tiring especially when it is done with other activities and that too in a short span of 36 hours. We went to almost all the points we set to visit, but I wish I had a little more time. Columbia Gorge is certainly a very very beautiful place. Worth going down to a few times, for, probably on each visit you might see something new. I say keep 2-3 days at your hands if you want to make most of your trip. But even as short the trip was, it was fun, because I got ample shooting opportunities.

Vivd Landscape from Vista House From Columbia Gorge

Just for your reference, if you have limited time and want to make most of your trip, there are few places worth visiting:

Vista House Scenic Byway
Multnomah Falls
Fish Hatchery at Bonneville Dam
Curly Creek Falls
Windy Ridge Viewpoint. I think adding this place to itinerary makes sense only when you are heading to Washington, because that is when it kind of comes on the way (with little to no detour).

2. Impromptu Mt. Rainier Paradise Point trip

Golden Mt. Rainier at Sunset From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

I was a little reluctant on this one for I was little tired and wanted to spend some time home (slumbering with a nice novel) and nothing was planned. If you are going as far as about 100+ miles, each way, you better have a pretty good idea of what places you can and cannot visit,. But good sunny weather and insistence did the trick and I tagged along. Since it wasn't well planned, we just hit Paradise point, trekked along some random trail and headed back home, after doing Reflection Lake on the way. Once again, I wish I had little more time on this trip, could have seen Reflection Lake before sun started going down, which I know, looks just gorgeous.

Reflection Lake From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

Myrtle Falls From Mount Rainier Paradise Point

Links to albums:

Insanely Long Post

2009-08-22T21:44:00.063-07:00

At the onset of the year 2009, I knew that the 5-6 months that lie immediately in front of me are going to be extremely grueling. Guess, I was wrong! I wasn't prepared for what lie ahead of me, it seems, in retrospect.

For the lack of better word, life (on personal front) had been more than an excruciating roller-coaster ride for past 6 months. It is worth going through all the pains, only if you know there is a sweet end to it, and you can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel (which you are sure is not from an oncoming train that will run you over). I saw that light on and off, like someone was holding a blinking light and playing tricks with me. That explains sporadic/no emails, no replies, no phone calls, reduced online activity, no login on GTalk/YM IMs and increased isolation! But nothing to worry, for, if I were to assume that my unassuming assumption of 'things are under control' is a right assumption, all seems to be well :-)

Apart from work and coping up with tons of other things, I have been largely spending inordinate amounts of time (mostly with self) philosophy'ing, professing, contemplating, understanding, questioning, discovering and rediscovering the meaning, purpose and essence of life. And going beyond: the purpose of all of the beings, their actions, reactions, sins, good/bad-deeds, death, birth, karma, consciousness, subconsciousness, etc. And I have to admit that I am no closer to any answers than I was at the beginning of this journey (not to mention the additional array of questions that took birth!). Yet, I believe it is worth treading along.

So here is an insanely long post of things (in no particular perceivable order) on my mind today, that I thought I could share... This is not the final version and will probably evolve over a period of fews days after initial posting. For your convenience, here are some shortcuts that will jump to specific sections, this much for being considerate reader of this boring post :-)

Documentaries/Movies

Outings

Photos

Movies/Documentaries

Nothing beats the joy of a relaxing (and thought provoking) movie. I utterly detest the act of watching a movie that will shove garbage up a$$ and eventually into head. As long as movie is provoking positive thoughts and attitude, I can watch it.

Ice Age-3,aka Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

I had never seen a movie in 3D in my life before. And this was the FIRST ever 3D movie I have seen. It was an exhilarating experience. This is one of the best movies I have seen lately. After a few minutes, the fact that movie is 3D is forgotten only because the story is so gripping, funny & engaging. My favorite character is Buck; an eccentric, brave and mysteriously knowledgeable little creature in the strange land of dinos. Of all the Ice Age movies, this is THE BEST so far. No nonsense, no emotional garbage, funny quips and lots of action and affection. A perfect package to rejuvenate a otherwise languid day. It would be fair to claim that it is one of the only few movies that is suitable to and enjoyable by every age group: kids, teens and adults alike.

Dispatches Mumbai 26/11

Link to video Disclaimer: The programm contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. I myself couldn't watch it in one go! November last year, the world stood still and watched in shock as terrorists went on a rampage in the bustling city of Mumbai in India. Came across this excellent [and] disturbing documentary by Channel 4/BBC, an untold story of 2008's terrorist attack, in the eerie words of its victims and the gunmen. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened when 10 gunmen held one of the world's busiest cities at hostage; killing and wounding hundreds of people at will while holding India's top notch security at bay. The sad thing, today, is that even after all these months, it is business as usual as far as apprehending the culprits is concerned. Pakistan just released the prime suspect, and is blaming India for his release (which is kinda funny, because Pak is apparently imposing a ban on such nonsensical outfits anyways!). I cannot comprehend what is more sad, the fact that so many innocent lives were lost, our security sucks or the fact that business is back to normal as if nothing happened. Sometimes I wonder if affected people wonder whether it is worth continuing living such a life (where the a$holes eventually shall inherit the world) over total annihilation of human race with nuclear warfare and let the whole world reboot, eviscerated of all the vices. Additional Links: 0. 8 Ways India can hurt Pak 1. Mumbai massacre revisited

Dispatches Pakistan's Taliban Generation

Video 0, Video 1 Pakistan's Taliban Generation investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists - children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. Journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy reveals how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly young fighters for their campaign. She interviews a 14-year-old boy in Karachi who's desperate to become a suicide bomber. At a nearby refugee camp, Sharmeen interviews two teenage boys whose local madrassa was hit by bombardments (alleged by US drones and Pakistani armies) while children were studying (read: studying? really?) inside. In the aftermath of the attack, a local militant arrives to preach to a large crowd of local youngsters. He successfully bags (read: brainwashes) a handful of fresh recruits! For various reasons, these videos are being forced out of shared sites. So if any of the links are dead, just Google these names out and you will get at least one current active source. It would be nice if you are kind enough to share it with me, so that I can keep it current.

Transformers 2, aka Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I would rate it at just 5.0/10. While good, more than 2 hours of non-stop abuse of special effects is not fun to watch. This happened to be my first movie in IMAX (but non-dome) theater. Frankly, I couldn't appreciate the hyped IMAX factor. I don't know who is to be blamed: the fact that IMAX theater is indeed a hype, or the movie was sh!tty. The movie got on nerves, esp. because the movie is insanely long. Definitely worth letting it pass by unwatched (unless you want to ogle at Megan Fox, I didn't).

Terminator 4, aka Terminator Salvation

I don't know why am I even mentioning this. Probably just to let you know that if you haven't seen this, don't waste your precious time (and money). By any stretch, movie is just average, and falls far below expectations on every front: direction, action and story. Story, is a little too incomprehensible, if (like me) you are not an insane die-hard Terminator fan. Skip it, I would say.

While very engaging and entertaining, it tends to get too depressing (in the memory of old man's sweet wife) very too often. This fact drains out all the fun from a otherwise very well made and directed animation movie.

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra

A movie so devoid of any substance, that even the starring of bombshells like VS-angel Karolina Kurkova and Sienna Miller doesn't cut it through. Except for the concept of nano-mites (and its applications, good and bad), the movie had no thought provoking substance in it for me. Major part of movie towards the end looks nothing like a movie! It looks like a poorly made VGA-era game projected on giant screen in the year 2009. Fx (if you will call that) comes nowhere close to the epic special effects of a decade old Matrix! Not even two decade old Jurassic Park! Hasbro, simply sucks. The fact that they did such a trashy job on Transformer 2, I shouldn't have craved to watch this movie. I could have done sooooooo much more in those 2 hours and with now-wasted 15 dollars ~~~sigh~~~

Battle of X-Planes

America has a yearly military budget of 600+ billion dollars, which is higher than the military budget of rest of the world put together! This is a technically very thought-provoking documentary. They have made a very nice film out of the quest of two of the biggest aviation companies (Boeing and Lockheed Martin) to build two prototype jets each to replace the formidable (but seemingly unaffordable) F22 Raptors. Very engaging, it has boat loads of technology, zest, energy, thrill and politics in one single package. This documentary left no doubt in my mind as to why USA's military force is so formidable. Additional Links: 0. Military Expenditure by country

Outings

Long Weekend with Aurn-Suchi

This deserves a post in itself, but I figured if I delay it any more, it won't happen. So, in the essence of something is better than nothing, I clubbed it along here. It had been a long time I met my old time buddy Arun (aka Anna). My plans to spend a week with him and his wife (Suchi, aka Su) before I started my new journey got cancelled, and ever since we have been itching to meet. Finally, that happened on the Independence day long weekend. Wow! It was such a rejuvenating and relaxing 4-day trip, I don't have right words to put it in perspective. We had made great plans, but Su's health didn't cooperate, so we spent lot of time unplanned at home. I bet it was far more fun than anything we had on paper to do if Su's health were better. Eating yummy food, watching movie, talking on and on, seeing photographs, etc... it was real fun. The night I landed in LA, me and Anna talked about everything there is to talk about under the sun: technology, life, computers, cars, economics, movies, philosophy, psychology, spiritualism, religion, love, hatred, books, laptops, operating systems, algorithms, stores, and what not! For a 5-6 hours talk, that was pretty dense variety of topics :) We went for La Jolla Beach, but the @#$ing traffic on I-5 consumed all the time we had (more than 2+ hrs of ride, for a usually about 50min ride) and so hit the beach only at hours past sunset. We had food at a nice Persian restaurant, though. To help recuperate Su's health, we let her stay home while we went to San Diego SeaWorld the next day. It was a great outing, but the time spent unplanned at home were the most fun filled moments! Click here for photos from my LA trip.

Long Weekend of July with Arun and Suchi

Essence: Nothing beats the joy of connecting to a close old timer.

Green Lake Park

On some odd sunny Sunday we ventured out to yet another park. We couldn't spend much time there, for some of us had to reach back home early, but I managed to click some photos. My favorite one is this:

From Green Lake Park

click here for whole Green Lake Park album.

Snoqualmie Falls

On a lazy Saturday, we longed for hitting a waterfall. Snoqualmie Falls it was this time. Picturesque place, amazing water fall.

Magnificient Falls From Snoqualmie Falls

Click here for more pictures Snoqualmie Falls

Rattlesnake Ledge

Another outing, a wonderful trek for beginner to advanced trekkers. And once you are done with the trek, you can come down and have a nice refreshing dip in the cool waters of the Rattlesnake Lake!

From Rattlesnake Ledge Trek

Photos

Long Weekend with Arun-Su, Hollywood, SeaWorld, La Jhola Beach

Long Weekend of July with Arun and Suchi

Woodland Park Zoo

This is my most prized photo from this trip:

Emerald Tree Boa From Woodland Park Zoo

And here's the link to whole album:

Green Lake Park

Snoqualmie Falls

Gasworks Park

Seattle Downtown

This is a beautiful panorama of Seattle Downtown across Lake Union. You must zoom in 100% to enjoy it.

Fishtank

My original first tank had some major issues a month back, and all the plants suddenly died :( I suspect it was the attack of hair-algae. But I'm not sure. I had setup new tank some time back. Two days back I saw 2-3 baby ghost shrimps emerge out from dense plantation, today, I can't see them. They usually make good snack for fishes, I fear they must have gotten devoured. Quite a few of the baby fries that sunburst platy gave birth to, have grown in size, I moved about 7 of them into larger tank. Waiting for the rest to grow up. I haven't gotten around shooting it, but here is one photo of my second 30gallon planted tank.

From New Fishtank

Heatwave

End of July, we experienced the hottest sun that has never been experienced in over a century here in Seattle, it soared around 105F (~41C). Intense sun extreme along with humidity made the weather unbearable for about a week. So much so, that even the cooling systems at my office failed to function, and many worked from home for 2-3 days. Fans were only as useful as a AA-sized battery operated hand-held fan is useful in scorching Sahara dessert!

Random Thought

Don't compare yourself to other people. It won't help. You will only find what you expect to find. If you think you are weak, everyone else will seem stronger. If you think you are strong, everyone else will seem weaker. It is futile to compare like that. Simply look at where you are now, and aim to get better as you go forward, that is the way to go. That is the only way to not be a part of the crazy rat-race. (inspired by Self-Discipline and seems to be inline with my theory of Types of Successes)

Serenity

Only a few people know about my craving for serene soothing music. I am always on a lookout for one. Recently I stumbled upon this soothing performance. I don't know the language it is spoken in, or if the lyrics have any meaning in some spoken language, but it indeed is very soothing Dona Ceri'Tun by Gary Stadler & Stephanne.

Latest Fads

KenKen (it is like advanced Sudoku, you must try it, it is addictive!)

GIMP and Layers

Green Tea (link2)

LOST

last.fm (revived)

Books

I haven't been reading much lately...
The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman
I didn't find the book as engaging, except for few pages. This book was on my to-read list of a very long time now, glad I can now strike it out from the list.
You guessed it right, the name of my blog is kind of derived from the title of this book :)

Upcoming Activities and Fads

Things I intend to take on going ahead, preferably through the end of this year (not necessarily in that order).

Diving deeper into photography

contemplating buying a CPL filter
creating panoramic images (you already saw the sample above)
learn layers in GIMP (see an example below of what could be done with it)

Playing with layers in GIMP From Photography

Sports

Volleyball: just re-started playing volleyball after almost 5yrs, best stress buster I have found (this Thursday I played non-stop for 3 hours, and I felt I was in heaven and wished that the night would never end!)
Nutrition

Movies I Want to see

Public Enemies
G-Force (yes, I'm a big animation movie fan! plus I love watching cartoon films!)
Harry Potter-6 (only for Fx)
Ninja Assassin (to be released: Nov 25, 2009. I like a good movie based on martial arts, even if it has outlandish stunts, as long as they are well executed)
Drag Me to Hell (has been a while I have seen horror flick)
District 9

Books I want to read

Haven't done much reading lately, books on my mind:

Windows Internals
Brave New World
Acupressure, mainly interested in points on palm and foot
The Digital Photography, Scott Kelby, vols. 1-3

Geekdom

Mastering vi, complete the tutorial (typeset in TeX/LaTeX) that I abruptly stopped working on
My resume using TeX/LaTeX (yes, I'm still hung on it!)
Move to [K]Ubuntu
Upgrade my homepage to be managed via new infrastructure (suggestions welcome)

Outings

Mount Si, 4mile trek, each way
Mt. Rainier, I want to catch the glimpse of how gentle rays of rising sun alchemies the majestic snow-clad peaks of the Mt. Rainier

Posts to expect

Why I joined Microsoft, in spite of other lucrative offers?
Showdown: Firefox vs Internet Explorer, most detailed head-on comparison(AtulT 23-Dec-09 link here!)

And, if, after all these, I still have some time, I would like it to save for myself :)

My new hobby: An Aquarium Enthusiast

2009-06-10T17:08:00.016-07:00

I have always wanted to keep an artistic beautiful looking fish tank. For long, I was resisting the idea. The only inhibition, though, was the sad event of fishes dying. And the thought of the hassle to go through when/if I move to a different apartment. But I found myself increasingly reading on and on about aquariums. After a lot of deliberation and more than a month's research, I finally dived into this new hobby: Nurturing a Fish Aquarium.

Day 06 From My Fishtank

Day 09 From My Fishtank

After I yielded, I thought of just growing aquatic plants, i.e. to do Aquascaping, as they call it. But I figured that would be a little difficult to achieve without keeping any other kinds of life forms. So I started with hardy ghost shrimps. But soon I was tempted by beautiful fishes at pet stores (which I visited umpteen number of times, and still do!). I hate the idea of removing poor fishes from their natural habitat in river and trapping them in small tanks, but I felt that I would definitely take more gentle care of them than pet stores do. And so, about 8 weeks (2 months) back I dived in, and I'm more than happy I did! So much so, I even purchased a much bigger 30 gallon (110+ liters) tank. The larger tank is waiting to be up and running.

My set up looks like:

10 gallon (38 liters) tank (with filter and heater)
Regular gravel, 5lbs
Fish Food (4 varieties!)
DIY Carbon-dioxide diffusing system
2x15 watts daylight CFLs (light temperature: 6500K)
1x15w Phillips Plant Light (light temperature: 5100K)
Seachem Fluorite Red Gravel/Substrate, 15lbs
Stress Coat (de-chlorinator)
Stress Zyme (contains live bacteria, and helps develop biological filters)
Aquarium Salt
Flourish Excel (Liquid Carbon)
API Leaf Zone
Seachem Flourish Tabs (to stimulate plant growth)

Smooch From My Fishtank

Fishes:

Pair of Balloon Mollies (they are fun to watch!)
Pair of Sun Burst Platy
Pair of Chinese Algae Eater
Pair of German Blue Rams
4 Ghost Shrimps
1 Gold Gourami
1 monstrous looking (but great) Pleco

Plants (I hate artificial plants, so I have some live ones):

Vallisneria and Mollies From My Fishtank

A few days back my Sunburst platties spawned and I have a few fries in a separate tub. It is amazing to watch those rice-grain-sized mini-fishes run around :)

What I could have done better:
If I were to go back in time and redo the tank setup, a few things I would do/correct:

Reduce plant substrate: I should have used half(7-8lbs) of what I currently put(15lbs)
Cycle Longer: I should have waited more than 2 weeks before adding fishes
Siphon out poop: I never realized my fishes were pooping so much that it was not getting broken fast enough into plant-consumable elements. I should have used siphon to clean the fish-poop from gravel right from the beginning.

Face-to-Face From My Fishtank

It took me more than a month's worth of diligent hard working to get the tank to the current state. And probably another month to fine-tune it. But with experience you can do it in a much shorter time.

Day51: Full view of tank From My Fishtank

There are zillions of websites and articles by aqua-enthusiasts, so I won't bore you with technicalities right now. For the interested readers I'll post a detailed instructions(probably with video!), how-to, and some tips on my homepage.

But, if I were to write a short instructional summary, I would tike to highlight a few cardinal rules that you must adhere to before starting your own tank. A little pain, effort and restrain in the beginning will serve you well in the long run. In fact, you can even pledge before someone so that you are more likely to live by them :)

Patience

As with almost everything else in life, patience pays off. And esp. true with mother nature, for you cannot cheat nature (at least in most of the cases), you have to have patience. I can't emphasize it more

Research

Visit fellow enthusiasts, pet stores, read-read and read (RTFM in computer jargon)

Cycle the Tank Properly

NEVER put fishes just the day you setup the tank. Invariably they will fall sick. Give about 3-6 weeks of time before populating your tank.

Keep it Clean

Changing just 10% of tank water weekly is right way to keep the water clean
Always dechlorinate tap-water (using chemicals and keeping it in a container overnight)

Experience

Knowing at least one person who has kept fishes for long enough, helps. And reading ALWAYS helps.

Kindness

Please be kind to your fishes. Give them good environment to live in. And don't overfeed them

Spare/Quarantine Tank(s)

Get a cheap tank to quarantine your fishes and treat them when they fall sick. Never treat fishes in your main tank. Also, it is a good idea to quarantine new fishes for a week before moving them to the main tank. NEVER add the water you got your fishes in to your main tank

Lighting

You will have to research a little more than an average joe if you want to have good plant growth in your fish tank. In short, 2-3 watts/gallon of the right/full spectrum is good enough

Time

Last but not least, I want to caution you that fishtank will take a LOT of your time! Well, not in terms of maintaining it. Once it is set up, there is little to do: daily feeding and weekly water changes. What you will eventually find yourself doing is endlessly observing these cute little beings horse around for hours! I spend well over half an hour daily watching them. And still I can't watch enough of them! If you are an idiot-box addict, this will cut off some of time you spend in front of that that BS-blasting contraption. So be prepared to spend time watching them. And trust me, that is the most FUN part!

Here are some resourceful links:

Half Moon and local park

2009-06-04T22:04:00.003-07:00

Beautiful Half Moon. Now I want to click full moon.

Half Moon From Idylwood Park

Rest of the photos from few minutes trip to nearby Idylwood Park.

Album: Idylwood Park near Lake Sammamish

Photo Credits: Atul Talesara
Model: Canon EOS 30D
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: 6.3
Focal Length: 200mm

Types of Successes

2009-05-31T19:42:00.006-07:00

While I was introspecting and contemplating meaninglessly, as I often do, I realized...
As I see, from my own meandering experiences that there are two types of people categorized based on how they see and measure their personal successes.

0. People whose success is relative
They measure their success ONLY relative to someone else's. Their success is enjoying/earning/having relatively superior things/opportunities/luck when compared to someone else. In simpler terms, they feel successful if someone else is unsuccessful. If they cannot succeed, more often than not, they want their peers (with whom they compare their success for relativity) to fail. They just want to be relatively successful, and, as with everything else in life, they take the path of least resistance: Think bad for someone. They want someone to plummet in the deepest trenches of hopelessness, so that they feel successful in spite of being not-so-successful. They are successful only when someone else isn't. Their happiness (which is directly linked to success) is pivoted on someone else being unhappy. It is sad to see that the world is infested with this type.

Though exotic, rare and hard to find, there is second category:

1. People whose success is absolute
They DO NOT compare their successes to anything or anybody else's. They use someone's success as a metric, as a comparison point, and then aim to go beyond that. And the only way they want to go beyond that is by elevating themselves to that level, and not by degrading the comparison point. In my view, these people are the true champions in life.

Cannot resist quoting beautiful lines from the 'Sunscreen' song:

Don't waste your time on jealousy;
Sometimes you are ahead, sometimes you are behind...
The race is long, and in the end its only with yourself.

The sooner you realize this, the more time you shall have to enjoy TRUE success.

Serene Lake

2009-05-27T22:16:00.006-07:00

Lake I shot one evening... click the photo to see bigger version.

The Lake From Photography

Photo Credits: Atul Talesara
Location on GMap
Camera : Canon EOS 30D
Lens : Tamron 18-200mm
ISO : 1000
Exposure : 1.3s
Focal Length : 31mm

Perfect Definition of An IT Professional

2009-05-27T15:13:00.003-07:00

Long back, a person who sacrificed his sleep, forgot his family, forgot his food, forgot laughter were called "Saints". But now they are called..."IT professionals"!

via: Laugh It Out.

CMU Graduation Ceremony 2009, CMU's 112th Commencement

2009-05-22T11:31:00.011-07:00

With my prized possession From Graduation 2009

I was eagerly looking up for this event. The journey to school was tiring: taking red-eye out of SeaTac, hitting Pitt grounds, crashing at a room of friend's, chilly weather, bad bad food (I cannot survive on pizzas, burgers and salads), but all this was manageable compared to what came next. The return journey! I had booked 5.30am early morning flight out of Pitt on Monday morning. Me and Vish took the last bus out of CMU to airport at 11 the previous night. We figured it is better to spend (sleepless) night on ice-cold insanely uncomfortable chairs at airport than over sleeping through flight departure! Soon after boarding the doors were shut, and blurted out the Captain: I have hit a dead battery! God, what is this guy flying, a 40's WW-II plane or something??? But what shook me out of my sleep was his claim that this one-of-its-kind-of-battery is not available anywhere in US but Atlanta (Delta's hub)! And so, the captain added, "we'll have to wait for 3+ hrs at airport", begging to be flown to our final destinations ASAP and our connections taken care of while they fly in the battery from Atlanta to Pitt! (WTF!)

After standing in queue for 2+ hrs, I got alternate arrangements made for Atlanta-SeaTac flight, the Pitt-Atlanta will remain as is: delayed. It meant spending inhuman number of hours incredibly bored at Atlanta airport. Whole of Monday looks wasted. I hate these airliners, never ever in 2 yrs of my travel have I got all flights on-time, international or domestic. This is yet another !@#HOW to cheat! What? You really think there was a technical glitch in the plane! The battery sh!t that captain gave was real! Oh, come on, you naive!

Ceremonial Robe From Graduation 2009

The fun part, the ceremony itself: The grandeur of the event was breathtaking, and I pondered: "Why don't we have anything like this in India?". The answer is simple: We are far too moderate. But come to think of it, the Americans are not stupid, there is a reason for this ceremony. Making the graduates feel good is, but, just one (and I dare say: lesser important) of the factors! Yes, as everything else in the West, it is about business, aka money money and ONLY more money (more about it below)!

But... that aside, I did enjoy the ceremony. I delayed the post in (useless) hopes that I'll get enough pictures from buddies to share. A framed photo promised by department will take time to come, and the hired pro-photographer to cover the event who claimed to email samples in 24 hours seems to be gone without a trace. So, here I'm, sharing one of the happiest moments of my life with very few photos for now.

Me and My Degree From Graduation 2009

If you have seen or attended any one of graduation ceremonies, you will instantly connect to the above claim about money. Starting with building stages, tents, sound systems, flags, graduation robes, food, certificates, photographers, media coverage, hospitality for chief guests flown in from miles afar, sending out invitations, etc. etc. I bet I missed a zillion other things, but the point is that doing all of these requires: man power and money! Then comes the role played by students: 99% of them will be flying from somewhere else to attend the ceremony, a lot of them will bring in the families (and to-bes), friends, colleagues, their accommodation (hotel), food (restaurant), travel (car-rentals, bus), touring around the places, shopping (clothes, chocolates, boozes), and what not!!! So you see, it IS about money! It is a big industry in itself. Look out for one of my upcoming (and probably unrelated) post: I Hate Wall Street!

With fellow raccoons From Graduation 2009

President Jared L. Cohon addressed(video) the audience. Eric Schmidt was the chief guest at the ceremony, and his keynote speech(video), though good, was nothing too inspiring or out-of-the-box. I wasn't too impressed. But his note about everything related to computers and mobile phones to have come from Carnegie Mellon, was very inspiring, though! The whole procession and ceremonial air was exciting me despite the chilling winds torturing most of us through our non-woolens. The following departmental function was when we were conferred with our much coveted diplomas! It was chaired by HOD(link) and few other important current/past professors. Few made speeches, but the one made by '(I'll have to look up the name :-S)' (who divulged a bit into an interesting book he recently read, Augustine's Law) about lawyers. I can't recall the exact sentence, but he said something to the effect that 'Lawyers are a hindrance to the progress of mankind' and with my (albeit limited) reading of lawsuits made perfect sense!

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family, immediate and extended (aka friends) for supporting, encouraging and helping me through my days at CMU (including, but not limited to pre and post CMU life). No matter what I do, I cannot ever repay back in full for what my family has done for me, and this degree, though technically earned by me, is, in fact, practically conferred to my parents. Kudos and heartiest Congratulations to them! ~~applause~~ I see myself just as an instrument fulfilling what they dreamed of. This is, but, just a humble gift to my family.

Links:

P.S. ECE Raccoons, CMU Grads, their families and friends, if you have photos or videos worth sharing, do email them to me (resolution please).

System Programmers Too Can Cook!

2009-05-08T16:53:00.004-07:00

And darn pretty well! Yes, and not just regular ready-to-cook meals, but fancy entrées, yummy side dishes and finger-licking desserts!

Lemon Spoon Cheese Cake From Iron Chef Competition

That is exactly what the "The Iron Chef Competition" was all about. Slated as a morale boosting event, the idea was to drive to culinary school, split the team into 3-4 smaller groups, cook some food and then let it be judged while we enjoyed the purportedly tasty food we just cooked!

My whole understanding (as a skeptic) was : "Cook the food, let it be judged, and then what we will end up eating is something ordered on the restaurant menu. And all that we just cooked will find it's way in trash can (at the least, in the can marked 'compost'!)". And so I had planned to skip it and read some code instead. Well, tell you what, I was W R O N G!

When people were moving out for the event, senior teammates were checking every room to see who's holed up in there still assaulting their keyboards with terminals hooked on to some remote debugging sessions. I was one of them. On their insistence, I thought, let me go along, at least I'll meet other people. On the venue, after the rules were explained, each of the four teams were assigned a chef. But still organizers maintained that we will eat ONLY what we cook. I thought to myself: "Baahh... they are just saying that so that we take this cooking seriously and cut ourselves outta work". Soon the cooking started, few minutes into it and I realized two things:

These chefs are real good! Even when I didn't understand more than 91% of the items and items they talked about! But they were very well adept at instructing how-to-cook. (They must be, I learned later they, run that place as a school to teach culinary skills!)
We are indeed going to eat what we cook, and the food is NOT going to be as bad as I imagined!

Being a veggie, I ended up making Lemon Spoon Cheese Cake and chopping lots of veggies for and helping make veggie Spaghetti. Psst... I will post the details if I can successfully re-make the cake by myself!

Rajeev, switching roles From Iron Chef Competition

When the time for lunch came, about 2.5 hrs after we started cooking, it dawned upon me that everything that was cooked here today, is palatable! And the fact that some of these items we are going to devour are prepared by us, only improved the taste and doubled the pleasure! The only guilt, though, is that I ate too much of cheese cake consuming tooooooo much calories while I'm a little out of touch(wft?) with gym or any kind of rigorous physical activities (aka soccer. But after more than a year's break, I did play a little bit of volleyball this Sunday).

All in all, it was much much much more fun cooking with my directors, leads, boss mentors and peers than sitting in dark rooms with something flickering on the gigantic white screens! Or even heading off to go-carting, etc.

Me chopping & JR instructing somebody From Iron Chef Competition

I thoroughly enjoyed the event, and so did everybody else, because everybody got a piece to do in making the luncheon! And there was at least one person who liked something or the other that was cooked. I'm happy my seniors holed me out of my room to join this event.

Me, Surendra(director) & Stone(mentor) From Iron Chef Competition

This much I have decided, someday, when I have enough time out of my work and other hobbies, I will definitely take up a small course to learn some culinary skills! Maybe, then, I will top it off with another hobby: Spoil my, friends' and neighbors' kids/grandkids by feeding them some outlandish dishes!" ha ha!

Have a look at the whole album and more beautifully made dishes:

The Iron Chef Competition

Venue: Blue Ribbon Cooking and Culinary Center
Photo Credits: Ravikumar(Sony DSC-W120), Katie (Nikon D300)

Cougar Mountain Trails

2009-04-29T11:33:00.008-07:00

A nice sunny weekend of 18th April '09 (a weekend before the last) started with a long list of frenzied activities to do, with plans to trek ON and OFF. After some deliberation, we said lets make it a best effort thing, if we finish off other stuff sooner, we can hit the trails. And indeed we finished our work and headed for the trails. By 1431 hrs we were at the parking lot.

The trail itself was very very boring, because even though it had surprisingly wild feel to it, the whole forest was dry, leafless and brown. As if everything around has been rendered lifeless. I wonder how beautiful the trails would look when trees are lush and more lively.

Beautiful Flower from Cougar Mountain Trail

Halfway through the trails, and we met an elderly chirpy couple. We hit a conversation with them and inquired what's worth seeing here, because so far it has been too boring. They gladly pointed us in waterfall's direction. Once we hit the waterfalls, everything looked lively, serene and green.

Standing on a rustic bridge from Cougar Mountain Trail

I love waterfalls. I had taken my tripod and was itching badly to take some slow-shutter (long exposure) shots of the beautiful falls. You can see some of the in my album.

Forceful yet Peaceful from Cougar Mountain Trail

The two things worth seeing here are the Coal Creek Falls and the Meadow Restoration Project, which we didn't see properly due to lack of time. In all, at the end of the day, the 4 hour trek was totally worth it just because of the beautiful falls.

Beautiful waterfall from Cougar Mountain Trail

Link to complete album: Cougar Mountain Trail.

Credits:
Photo : Self
Directions and Marked trail maps: Ami

Now, for the enthusiastic ones, and as a reference to future trekkers, here's all the technical details that might be helpful.

Level of Trek: Beginner to Medium. But I can only speak of path we took.
This is the map marked with various trails, and the second one is marked in purple the trail we trod along.
Our path:

Started walking on Red Town
Left and onto Cave Hole Trail
Right on Coal Creek Falls Trail (this is where we met that elderly couple)
Right on Quarry Trail
Right on Red Town Trail and back to parking lot

Directions to Town Trailhead:

Drive on I-405 South (towards Renton), take exit 10 for Coal Creek Pkwy
Continue toward 118th Ave SE/SE Coal Creek Pkwy, and continue on SE Coal Creek Pkwy
Turn left at Forest Dr SE
Turn right at Lakemont Blvd SE/Newcastle Coal Creek Rd
Turn left at Lakemont Blvd SE, look for signs of Red Town Trailhead

Here's the Google Maps link to final destination, Red Town Trailhead.
And a very detailed map of the trails.

Darn C-Programmers!

2009-04-20T12:05:00.002-07:00

This is exactly what I would dream like if I counted sheep while sleeping! Darn system (C-language) programmers!
Solution: Don't forget to start dream by declaring NumberSheep as long int.

via: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language: xkcd!

laughing-my-ass-off dept.

2009-04-15T11:01:00.006-07:00

Pakistan says it can be 'role model' for Muslim world!

I couldn't resist posting about this! What in the world was Pak Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, thinking when he spit out this utter rubbish! I can't stop laughing my a$$ off! No seriously, how could that be!

It can mean only one thing, that the guy(???) doesn't know English! There can be no other explanation to this. Oh wait, only other possibility could be a typo in Mr. Qureshi's cheat sheet, it was intended to be: Terrorism instead of World! Or, they are taking world to be as di_k headed as they are!

They invest all the money into ISI-supported terrorism and then they come mooching at the world with a begging bowl in hand for MORE money to fight it (read: invest more into ISI-supported terrorism)! I pity the people who live there and have non-extremist and normal views. Can't imagine how they live there, that is, if there are any of that kind.

This is the related article on TOI: Pak says it can be role model for Muslim world!

Related Articles

And the list of Pak's BS'ing can go on, it is endless!

A Reckless Hike to Tiger Mountain

2009-04-04T20:29:00.006-07:00

Last weekend, after a long long time, I ventured for an outing. Had been itching and longing for some action (probably too much!) for quite some time now. But circumstantial reasons had been driving me otherwise.

A hefty 2000-foot gain to the summit of West Tiger 3, it is one of the very popular hikes in the area. Young, old, experienced or new to hiking, Tiger Mountain has trails for all of you. West Tiger 3 is 3+ miles of a hike (for the curious, here's the map).

After deliberating over weather, we finally set off on Sunday morning a little overcast, with 50-50 chances of raining. So we, in all eight of us, set off for an apparently pleasant trek to the Tiger Mountain Trails. With sun shining, we started on the trails. Few minutes into it and Viky almost gave in saying he can do no more :) We teased him and pulled him with us.

Trio From Tiger Mountain Trails

About halfway through, it started raining. Still, the trek looked promising, for we knew the view at the top was insanely beautiful. About one hour into it, and we found it was snowing! After treading along steadily, with me and Vish in the lead, we stopped for others. Only to realize few hours later that 4 of the remaining 6 had turned back, quoting lack of energy and the risk being not worth it. Failing to see them, we said lets keep going. Soon we found ourselves on trails that was not covered with snow, but ICE! Yes, snow had been walked over and over and melted and re-frozen into ice! But me and Vish were to headstrong to turn back, so we said lets keep going. Even if it meant that every once in a while we naively kept slipping. Some of the patches we crossed were very dangerous without right kind of gear. We then hit the most dangerous and almost impregnable patch: an incline of 45 degree, completely covered with thick ice! Even the most brave dare not tread on it without right gear (read: right gear == cleats or shoes with studs/spikes, ski poles, warm gloves, and some experience).

Being Reckless! From Tiger Mountain Trails

Still headstrong, we said lets do it! We went just a few meters and realized we can't move up! Every step we took up, we slipped 3 back! Even with support of some rotten branches we had picked on the way. Which by the way, were wet and freezing cold. That's when we realized we are in deep trouble. With great effort we managed to cling to a tree, and see rightly equipped people pass by us. After much debate (I would top it at 35 mins!) we came to conclusion that the only way out for us was to sit on our butts and slide our way down. But even that was risky, we had nothing to control our speed or even direction. Hands, completely frozen and about purple, had lost almost all of their dexterity. The fear of hypothermia did cross my mind a few times. Placing them on ice-clad trails sent pinching sensations. That's when we saw two of our braver buddies come hunting for us :) And... sliding on butts, poking sticks around for support, falling, skidding dangerously we finally made it to the parking lot, in one piece and just a few scratches. God must have definitely been with us LOL!

It was only that one patch where we got stuck was between us and the beautiful summit. But all the seasoned trekkers warned: 'I would not go up this patch if didn't have the right equipment'. And I'm glad we listened. Not only that, we also turned back a few reckless enthusiasts like us on our way back.

In retrospect, it was a wise move to cancel the trek for that Saturday, because if Sunday was so bad up there, god knows what it would have been like on Saturday when it was predicted that weather is very harsh (storm in some neighboring area) with strong wind currents.

Here's the whole album: Tiger Mountain Trails.
And a short 15s youtube video of us walking on ice!

video:

And here's photo slideshow:

Links:
0. Tiger Mountain Trails
1. Walking on ice
Photo Credits: Self and Ami

Wanna wear Fur? Think again! Seriously!

2009-03-26T11:36:00.006-07:00

Undercover investigators from Swiss Animal Protection/EAST International visited fur farms in China. Their findings are ghastly disturbing.

The insanely brutal shocking method of how fur is skinned from poor animals while they are still alive, breathing and struggling to fight excruciating pain, will send chills down your spine.

This particular undercover revelation is about unregulated fur farms in China, but I strongly believe (which are not baseless!) that it is true in (if not all then) most part of all the countries, undeveloped or otherwise. Besides, if you are not surprised, same is true of the slaughter houses you get your meat from, whether it is chicken, beef, pork or sausage. And the same goes for leather goods too!

So, think twice before indulging your sartorial desires!

Consider yourself equally culpable, for your consumption is harboring and encouraging these industries. At least consider reducing your consumption, if you just cannot live without it. Soon you will learn you actually can!

I thank God I'm a vegetarian, at least, knowingly I not causing inhuman torture of utmost degree to some speechless organism. Sometimes, I really wonder, if the purported superior intellect of humans warrant and justify such cruel acts. If so, then you cannot blame terrorists for doing what they are doing either!

Warning: The video is insanely inhuman, don't click on the play button if you are faint-hearted. But read the info on the page and you might reconsider fur as a clothing and meat as your preferred choice of food!

The actual article: A Shocking Look Inside Chinese Fur Farms

Note: If you are to argue that eating plants is also brutal act of same degree, then please don't even bother arguing here. Because you don't understand the basic theory of Levels of Consciousness, the fact that plants lack consciousness (not feeling, though!) and premises of Ahimsa (which again is an immensely intricate philosophy).

Links/See Also:

Some Photos

2009-03-08T21:39:00.004-07:00

Some photos I shot recently, thought of sharing them...
0. Beautiful Moon

1. Serene Reflection

Photo Credits : Atul Talesara
Equipment : Canon EOS-30D + Tamron 18-200
Focal Length : 200.0 mm
Moon : 1/400s, f/9.0, ISO-500
Reflection : 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO-400

Watchmen: Do not watch it!

2009-03-06T14:08:00.015-08:00

Yes, it has been a long time, and you guys have been waiting to hear from me. Trust me, there is, as always, tons to share. But too many things happening in a very short time. So I'll cut short the blog right to the point: A deplorable act I committed today: seeing the movie Watchmen.

Watchmen... Who Watches the Watchmen...
Another, what I would call, a in-theater-disaster for me. Had gone to watch it, only because it was a team-outing meant as stress buster after they had under gone yet another release cycle (read it was FREE!). Thought it wouldn't harm, but I was wrong. My head hurts now. Only 2 cups of black tea and a little ranting on this post alleviated the pain!

The movie has used good special effects, but after a while you feel it is just too much. FX is simply over used. The amount of bloody maiming and ruthless butchering and the spit-out-guts scene thrown at you would really turn you off after few initial minutes. That whole thing makes you miss the whole point of the movie, which, as you might have easily guess if you watched the trailer, is 'A Band of super heroes saving (or at least wanting to save) the world from N-war'.

There is too much of narrative to make the scheme difficult to follow in one pass. And even after multiple passes it probably would be hard to grasp it without any background of reading the novel from which the movie is adapted. The characters seemed underdeveloped on the screen.

And for other times when the so-called-super-heroes and villains are not ruthlessly mutilating each other, they are making out. But even that doesn't get any thumbs up from me. I would say it is not tastefully done.

A one-liner description of the movie:

Watchmen is an absolute abuse and a disastrous waste of special effects technology (and probably tons of money)!

To me, it was a criminal waste of time to watch it, esp. when the sun was out for all those close to three hours we wasted inside one dark room with incredulously loud noise, which by the way, ruled out all possibility of slumbering in cozy reclining seat! Sitting out in sun with a cup of Mighty Leaf's lightly flavored steaming Spring Jasmine Tea and staring at nothing and doing absolutely nothing would have been a better investment. Especially when you know sun doesn't come out so often here in this season!

Seriously, can't believe it is the same Zack Snyder who so beautifully directed 300 (my review here).

Morals:

Please do not waste your precious money, and above all TIME, on this lame celluloid.
Should you choose to ignore the above unsolicited advice, don't even think of taking your girlfriend with you on this movie, else, rest assured, this is going to be the last movie you would be watching with her :D Don't tell me you weren't warned!

Up to date list of books I own

2009-01-21T23:12:00.002-08:00

List of books in my own personal library now updated on my homepage! Link to the list.

0. Library: http://atult.net/library.html